Happy 11 Months to Beck

Beck finally, just today cut his first tooth. No kidding. When Emma turned 1 she had 11 teeth. When Anson turned 1 he had 12 teeth. Nathan had 8 and Annika, 6. Six, by the way is average. So it is odd indeed that Beck finally has 1 tooth. But, hooray!

Other funny things Beck does:
* He jumps on his bed. He's been doing this since he was 9 months old. He just holds onto the side and jumps.
* He can stand up, for a little while any way. Not only can he pull up on things and push away to stand, he can also just stand up, for a few seconds.
*He makes these lips--puckered up like he just ate a lemon. Although he's usually mad when he does it, I find it sooooo kissable. So I smooch those puckered lips every chance I get.

My Crazy Back-Door Neighbor Part 2

So Wendell finally picked up the phone the other day and he'd called to say that he could see we had a few apples in our tree (that were too high for us to reach, even with a ladder) and he knew someone who had donated boxes of fruit to the homeless shelter.

MYOB, please.

My Crazy Back-Door Neighbor

All two of you in my ward (you know who you are) who read this blog, shhhhhhhhhhhh. You may not repeat this story.

I have a crazy back-door neighbor. His wife, thankfully, is both sane and one of the kindest, gentlest people I know. My only concern for her is that I am not sure she knows her husband is crazy.

During the summer he called. "Hello," he says identifying himself by his first and last names and where he lives, "You have apricots hanging into my yard."

I smile, "Yes, Brother Crazy-Back-Door-Neighbor, you may have any of the fruit poking into your yard."

"Well, I have enough apricots, but I hate to see them spoil. How about the rest of the tree, can I have those too."

(Conversation in my head: Yes, please bring your ladder, climb into my tree and take all you want. Feel free to pick fruit from any of my fruit trees and you're welcome into the back yards of other neighbors that my fruit hangs over the fence into their yards as well.)

Real conversation: Um, no, no we'll use those ourselves. Bye.

Periodically, he leaves messages on our phone. Because he sells Amway the messages are usually cryptic, it's just very important for us to call back.

A couple days ago he called and left his first, middle and last name as well as his location--"your back door neighbor." Phew. That cleared things up. I'll definitely call back now that I have all three of your names, because recently a guy with the same first and last name moved into your house and called me about random stuff, but now that I know it's you and not him, I'll call back right away.

Pumpkin Land

Wendell put together this slide show of EVERY picture we took at Pumpkin Land. If you watch the whole thing, I'll give you something...a chocolate maybe. I can barely watch the whole thing and they're my kids.

Still, it's cute. There are some awesome ones of Annika at the end.

Usual Day vs Perfect Day

I suppose it wasn't actually usual, but the other day went so abismally that I wondered what the perfect day would look like.

Last Friday the following things happened:

*Skipped breakfast so I'd weigh less at WW
*Annika threw up
*Never went to WW
*Emailed School Community Council
*Tried to take a nap
*Annika jumped on my bed during aforementioned nap knocking a picture off the wall and onto my head
*Loaded kids in the car to get out of house
*Attempted to get fluoride prescriptions at Walgreens
*Got 10 pills, I have to come back next week
*Drove to Wendell's work
*Begged for gum, came home with three packs
*Nathan wet his pants, because
*Annika (who I'm starting to potty train) was "using the potty" and poop had fallen out of her pull-up onto the bathroom floor
*Gave up and figured I'd start tomorrow

This is what the perfect day would look like:

*Wake rested
*read scriptures
*exercise
*fold laundry for 10 minutes
*eat nutritious, easy to fix, yummy meals
*organize some part of the house
*read to Annika and play with Beck
*do homework, piano and chores with zero complaining
*visit with Wendell
*go to bed early

The Case of the Brothers

I was in the school office the other day as was our lead STAR tutor. (Star Tutoring is a special reading program to help kids, who are behind get up to grade level.)

I asked if she knew these brothers. Yes, she did. Then I explained that they were the first kids in the school to complete a reading program that is supposed to take 9 months. She shook her head the whole time I was talking and summed up, "Those boys are not capable of what you just explained to me."

My question to her was, "What do I do?"

She and the assistant secretary (another STAR tutor) thought I should call the boys' mother and explain the program. They gave me her number and I called.

I began with apologizing about how confusing the program was this year. That is true. My sister is helping me this year and she incorrectly explained the program in 5 of the 9 classes. (I did the explaining in the other 4.) This has required emails to the teachers and notes home to the parents to clear up--and still a lot of people are confused.

I was going to explain the program, how it's supposed to take all school year, how only books read this school year count, etc. But she stopped me after the apology and told me that when her boys had read 10 books, they went to pick up the prize and were denied by someone who didn't understand the changes made in the program.

So the boys took their lists home and "read a book a day" until they finished. These include the entire Harry Potter series--all 7 books. Emma reads over 200 words per minute and she has never read a Harry Potter book in 1 day. But the mom's math didn't add up either.

She said, "When they brought the lists home, we had about 2 weeks until the prize redemption day, so we read a book a day until they finished."

But when they brought the lists home they had only read 10 books, by her admission. So in 14 days, these boys read over twenty 4th - 8th grade level books. There is not another child in the school who has done that. I think only 1 has even reached 20 books, and only a handful have read over 10. So we have confirmed that these boys are THE most advanced readers in the entire school.

BTW, their mother won't let them be in resource, even though they qualify. She has requested that nothing special be done to help them. My suspicion is that her own bad experience in resource serves as a guide for that decision.

So after being told all that on the phone by the mother, there was nothing for me to do, but compliment her boys on the astounding feat and get off the phone. I have to admit that I have thought of one more angle. Since I don't want such advanced readers to be bored, I've thought of talking with their mother and suggesting that they do it again. That should be easy for them, especially when most of the kids have only red 2-3 books so far.

I'll let you know if I get any results.

Ethical Dilemma

I started an upper grade reading program at my kids' elementary school a couple years ago. Each year we tweak it a little bit, trying to get more kids to participate. Well, we've hit the jackpot. We have so many kids participating this year, I don't even know how we will afford the prizes for every one.

But this is where the dilemma comes in. The kids get different prizes for reading certain amount of books. 10 books is a small prize, 20 books a bigger prize and 30 is the biggest prize. At least half of the books must be read off of a certain list of books to get each prize.

We had our first prize redemption day today and almost all of the kids coming to get prizes had read 10-17 books--a reasonable amount for less than 2 months of the school year. But these brothers came in with 30 books signed off. All 30. These boys are not smart kids or fast readers. At least the one Emma's age is in resource/special ed. Their mother is more than half a bubble off as well. What I think they did is write down all the books the boys have ever read, that they can remember.

The younger one, who's Emma's age even told me, "Some of these I've already read."

"Well," I said, "I don't want to know what you've already read, bud. I only want to know what you've read this school year. If you read it during the summer or last year--it doesn't count. Here's a pen. I want you to circle all of the books you've read this school year."

"Oh," he said, "but I read all these this school year so do you want me to circle them all?"

I ended up sending the boys in to get the prize for reading 10 books and asked them to come back next month to get the prize for 20. As I said, these boys are far from bright. I could get them another prize out of the 1st prize level next time and they'd never know.

I suppose I have no proof that they didn't read all those books, but I just don't know how to deal with it. I mean I have 20 honest kids, then 2 dishonest ones. Do I penalize the honest kids? Do I make them all do book reports?

Next year I'll just have to get crappy prizes, but this year the prizes are awesome. $2 prizes for reading 10 books, $5 prizes for reading 20 and $8-$10 prize for reading 30. Plus, all the kids who read 30 are supposed to get a gift card to go to a book store. Last year we had only 2 kids do the reading. This year, we'll have tons!!! But not all of them will deserve the reward.

That is my quandary. Do you have any ideas?

Baby Beck Update

About a month ago, shortly after our return from Seattle, Beck had his 9 month appointment. I can't remember what they measured him, but they told me he was in the 70% for his height. I don't believe that for a second. I saw where the nurse measured him and it was a very generous spot. He's tops 60% for his height, but more likely 50%.

His weight was 16.1 lbs which means he's pretty much maintaining the 1% for his weight. To be honest, I was ecstatic about how much he had gained. I was told to start feeding him whole milk because he won't take formula and he needs a lot more calories than he's getting.

But I think he looks healthy, don't you?

Tagged!

I got tagged by my sister-in-law Debbie. Her post is great. Apparently, she had a bit too much fun in Germany...

1. If I stay up too late at night, I get a serious case of the giggles.

2. My vision is extraordinarily bad. My prescription is +.875 in my good eye and +.925 in my bad eye.

3. I have a fantastic memory. Often, I am able to quote conversations almost word for word even years later. I think that would make me a great witness if the occasion ever arose.

4. I have always wanted to serve jury duty, but I've never been called up.

5. I can hardly spell. I work very hard to keep this from my children. I don't what I'd do without my Google Spell Check on my Google toolbar.

6. I've know Wendell for half my life, but we've only been married for 11 years.

7. I am a stickler on certain pronunciations. For example, often rhymes with soften; there's no "T" sound.

I'm gonna tag Tamma, Tiffany, Zoila, Alisa, Angie, Shahara and Andrea.

A Message of Hope

This General Conference* I felt such a message of hope and comfort. Right now it feels like I use my blog to exclusively report what friend or relative of mine died. My brother-in-law Michael lost his father yesterday. Unfortunately, he was coming back from a international business trip (to where, I don't know) and Christy, my sister, was unable to get a hold of him until today.

So, poor Michael had only his flight from LA and his drive from the airport to process his dad's death and talk with his family about funeral arrangements, because today is his daughter's 12th birthday. When he got home he's supposed to be happy and joyful.

Michael's dad was only 58, although he had suffered from Crohn's disease for years. In recent months he had complete kidney failure. The kids had all been tested for donating a kidney and Michael and his younger brother Joseph were the best matches. Phil, had both his kidneys removed and was on dialysis while they weaned him off his pain killers. Once he was well enough, he'd get the replacement kidney. But he never got well enough.

After his last dialysis session, he slipped into that other world while resting. When his wife came home from the pharmacy with his prescription, she found him. He looked like he was sleeping, but she knew the moment she stepped in the room that he was gone.

So these conference talks were very timely for my family.

I am so glad that I believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection. I am glad that I know of eternal families and that as sure as I know anything, I know that Michael will see his dad again. Christy and Michael's youngest son (3) calls Michael's dad, "the grandpa with the black shoes." But Charlotte (5) told me today, "Grandpa's shoes are white now."

That's right, sweet girl. Grandpa has white shoes in heaven.

*Mormon 101: General Conference is a twice annual meeting for members of the LDS Church broadcast from Salt Lake City. The Prophet (President of the church) and all of the Apostles speak as well as other General Authorities (high ranking church officials), including women.