It's Practically Warm!

This morning I put on a fleece jacket when I took Jeremiah out to the bus, and I wasn't cold! Last night John and I were walking downtown, and I was freezing. It must have gotten warmer overnight, because it was an almost warm 27 degrees this morning.
I'm trying really hard to thicken up my blood this year. :)

Fingernail Biting

Isaac bites his nails. It's a bad habit for some, but an addiction for Isaac. His nails are about half the length they should be. Sometimes, though, I suppose his nails are a bit tired of being eaten, so he goes for his toenails. This afternoon I caught him snacking on his toes, and called him on it. He replied, "Yep--I'm just only cleaning my toes," so matter-of-factly. He (finally, after a few independent attempts over the past week) then allowed me to trim and clean his toenails. (His fingernails don't need trimming.)

See you Later Alligator!

I picked up Isaac from preschool today, and helped him fix his coat as he had put it on upside-down, making him the last child to leave his class. He talked to his teachers a little, and then his substitute teacher said, "See you later, alligator!" as we headed out the door. About six steps later, Isaac cracked up and said, "She called me alligator! That's silly!"

Speaks for itself

I never was a big Fresh Prince of Bel Air fan, but Carlton singing a 30 second Mormon opera just may have changed my mind!

Parent-Teacher Conference #2

Yesterday was Jeremiah's parent-teacher conference, and it was great! We had set goals for him with a slew of teachers in June, and he has been making extraordinary progress. He says words out loud (as opposed to in whispers) pretty much all the time at home and most of the time at school. He has started playing with the other kids. He knows what his name looks like (and has started calling himself "Miah"). He loves to wear lycra sleeves and his weighted vest. He's pretty much a cute, happy, easy-going little boy.

His class plays outside almost every day, and often ride on tricycles together. At the beginning of the year, Jeremiah didn't want to ride the bikes, so he sort of watched the other kids. Then he would run after the kids on the bikes. THEN he figured out he could stand on the back of another bike and have a classmate take him for a ride; one day the classmate got off the bike while Jeremiah was riding and Jeremiah fell down and was very surprised. Now Jeremiah will ride the bikes too, and chase the other kids, and play tickling games with them (all while playing on the bikes).

Jeremiah will give correct answers when asked colors and numbers, when they give him some time to come up with the answer. He sings songs, including actions, that the children learn each week. And when they walk through the halls, everyone asks who the cute little boy is. :)

Parent-Teacher Conference #1

We had Isaac's Parent-Teacher conference on Tuesday. Isaac came too, since his conference was immediately after his class. He showed us his classroom, and then he sat with us at the table and listened to his teacher for about 20 minutes. He's doing really well at school. He plays nicely with the other children, he listens to stories, he follows the rules. The only things he has trouble with is sometimes doing something with only general direction, such as "It's your turn, Isaac," when they're playing a game and ten other kids have already had a turn--he doesn't really know what to do; or he scribbles when he's instructed to draw a face, but will do the individual parts when asked. So we'll work on more game-playing and imitation and coloring in general at home. His teacher also said that they don't always understand him when he speaks; we gave permission for the speech teacher to evaluate him, to see if he needs some therapy. (This is sounding familiar...) John and I think that partly he could use some speech therapy, but mostly the things he talks about aren't the normal things 4-year-olds talk about. Ghosts and dragons and things that don't usually exist, doing things that are slightly unusual. "The ghost put the dragons in the cage! Waa waa! That makes the dragons so sad. The Care Bears are coming to help; Good job, Care Bears!" Not that I think other kids don't talk about ghosts and dragons and cages and Care Bears, I just think they don't put them together like that.

Bus

Jeremiah LOVES to ride on the bus. Last night he had a short, late nap and when he woke up (a tiny bit cranky) he went to our living room and was wandering around, listening for the bus, and asking, "Where are you bus? Bus? Coat? Backpack?"

This morning I went in to his room to wake him up (he was happily waking up on his own at the time--lucky for me) and help him get dressed, because "the bus is coming!" He got dressed quickly, with only a little bit of tickling for each of us, and we looked at a book until his bus came. (The book was "Off with their Heads," and the cover had a picture of a standing man. The man's head was a cabbage. We looked at it. We weren't reading it. He wanted to take it to school, but I put it on the floor when we were heading out to the bus.)

He has a cute little excited walk when we go out to the bus, and a little happy grin to go with it. I'm trying to remind him to hold onto the railing as he walks up the stairs, and I try to say bye before he turns to walk down the bus to his seat. I said "bye, Jeremiah" as he was going up the last step, and when he was up, he turned and waved and smiled and said, "Bye-ee! Bye!" I hope the bus driver doesn't mind the extra few seconds it takes. My day is made when Jeremiah says bye to me in the morning. (The bus driver always smiles, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't mind.)

Jeremiah's Shopping Trip

Jeremiah and I went to the store this afternoon. I wanted some yummy french bread, but we needed to pass the apples on the way to the bread, so I waited until the end of our trip to get the bread. Jeremiah adores apples...we couldn't get more than 8 feet away. We put two apples into a bag (one with a couple small bites taken from it), and then were temporarily appeased and able to get the bread and buy our things.

We also "impulse bought" a Spiderman hat and glove set for him. He loves Spiderman as intensely as he loves apples, though not for as long. (He was Spiderman for Halloween. Pictures will come shortly.) He was very happy on the way home, with his Spiderman glove on his hand (the other was in the bag). And the apple had to wait until I could wash it. (Pesticides and all...)