Fat Ol' Five

Had to take some time off of the blog because all last week X was getting aggravated about me asking him about his day. Every time I did, I just got, "bwah bwah bwah." So, hopefully back on track for a while.

Monday, September the twenty-sixf

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X: "We had to color sumping today?"

Me: "What?"

X: "It has my wetter in it?"

Me: "X?"

X: "Wes!"

Me: "Your name?"

X: "um... No, it goes wike this, A B C D..."

Me: "The alphabet?"

X: "Wes, we had to cowor each wetter and I did a pattern!"

Me: "What colors?"

X: "Well I made a pattern?"

Me: "Well, what colors?"

X: "uhhhhh. bwue and purple."

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I came in a put my stick in the bucket. And every morning I have a wittle stick that I got on the first day of school. When I was wearing my bumble bee shirt, you know. I colored it and Miss Holt put my name on it. And every morning, I put my stick in the bucket.  We put it in the green bucket. Miss Holt takes the sticks out and lays them on this wittle table. She does it so she knows who's here today.. Whoever put their stick in the bucket then they are here today.

If people don't come in when they are supposed to, like while Miss Holt is telling us something, they have to put their stick in the bucket.

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We worked on our E Q this morning. It changed this week. There's the weather part and our book changed this week. It's Miss Bindergarten goes on a field trip. Guess a name in the stories is...

Me, "Gideon?"

X: "No, Cwinton and someone else's name. Who's in this room. And he's walking around.  And he's talking right now"

Me: "ummmm. I don't know."

X: "Xavier."

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According to mommy: When X got to school this morning, there was a little girl in his class that came running up him and yelled, "I'm gonna beat you to the cafeteria XAVIER FOLLETT!" This made our little boy very angry, he replied with "Just call me Xavier."

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A writing number's poem according to X:

A straight line down is fun,

dat's the way to make a one.

Around and back on the railroad track,

two two two two.

Around the tree, around the tree,

dats' the way to make a three.

Down and across and down once more,

dat's the way to make a four.

Fat old five goes down and around,

put a flag on top and see what you've found.

Entomology

Today is Friday, September sixteenf. and we picked it was going to be sunny.

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Guess what A___ did all the way to the wunchwoom.. Well from all the way from the cwassroom to the wunchwoom."

Me: "What?
X: "He crawled. like a baby. Like this..." and he proceeded to get on the floor and crawl like a baby.
M: "what did Miss Holt say?"
X: "Well C______ “J” said, 'Miss Holt, A_____ is crawling like a baby.' Den Miss Holt said, 'A______ do you want your bear moved?' And guess what daddy, no one had to sit out of recess today.
 

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Miss Holt really likes insects. Guess what we had to do today… Patterns!

A piece of paper wiff a wine that has I B I B and den we had to finish it and I put an I and a B in the bwanks. You know, wike B for Bumble Bee.

Den I had  upper case  I, wower case I, upper case I, and wower case i. Den I filled in the two bwanks with upper case I amd a wower case I.

The next wine had an ant and a wower case I, ant and wower case I, an ant and wower case I, den two bwanks.  I did ant and wower case I in the bwanks.


Den finally we had to  draw fings that start wiff P like piano, pin, nut… I mean peanut, purse, and I don’t remember.  Den we had to draw insects. We had to draw insects. and I drawded a ant. and Dat was the wast fing we had to do.

See Miss Holt really wikes insects!

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With an Apple faced, brown paper bag, hand puppet, Xavier also recited a poem:

Way up high in the apple tree
Two red apples smiled at me.
I shook the tree as hard as I could,
Down came those apples,
MMMM they were good.

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Xavier - Everyfing about my day was funny.

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GIDZILLA!

I call for Gideon, he comes in from out on the porch.

Daddy: “Gideon, I need you to take your Leaptser back to your bedroom.”
Gideon: “But I’m playing with the Weapster.”
Daddy: “No. You’re playing outside. Take the Leapster back to your bedroom, please”
Gideon: “No, you see me tanding here, I’m not pwaying outside.”

You people!

Fursday, September the fifteenf.

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Today in Music cwass we singed a new song that I don’t remember.

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Today, in seat work we had to color and draw. the first thing we had to draw the letters red and the numbers green. Den a crocodile, whatever color we wanted too. Den the bird, whatever color we wanted too.. I made a blue bird and a green crocodile.

Oh and guess what, today I tried a strawberry for the first time. it was sour.

The second fing we had to do was a tree. And we could color it any color we wanted to we just couldn’t color the apples the same color as the tree. So, I colored the apples not green. Den we we had to count the apples and there were 12.

And the wast thing was Mrs. I. Want me to tell you what color I colored Mrs. I? I painted her hair brown and the rest of her green.

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At recess, I was playing army. Not army men but Spy Kids. And den I was running and J______’s cousin came up and I said that ‘J____’ wasn’t in recess cuz he was sick. Den I was playing bad bad guys but not really bad guys cuz I was the only one pwaying. Den she asked me if I wanted to pway but she was playing babies and I said “No way!”

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There have been two instances within the last week or so where a kid in school said some mean things to Xavier. I’m not going to go what was said but we talked to Xavier about it and tried to guide him on the proper course of action if it happens again.

Today apparently Shannon had asked Xavier how his day went, he said “Great!” Then she asked if those two kids said anything to him and he said “Nope, I just didn’t sit wiff dem and my day was Great!”

Then later, I asked him about those two kids and this is what he told me.

Mommy asked if I had probwems with C____ or A_____ and I said no it was J______. And den later she asked if J____and A_____ were good today and I said no, it was C_____. C_____ and J_____ are the mean kids, A_______ is the nice kid. Except the day he stole my gummy. What is wong with you people?

Medieval Madness

X: "At centers today, I went to blocks.. and C_____ was there. he's the mean kid.”
Me: "Yeah you've told me about him.”
X: "Well I built a helicopter (or airplane depending on when he’s telling the story). and when I was done, C_____ asked me if I could build one and I said, sure"
Me: "Well that's nice.”
X: "When I was done he said WOW! THAT'S AWESOME! THANKS!"
Me: "Really?”
X: "Yeah. He was trying to be nice today but he still got in trouble. BUT he didn't miss recess today.”
Me: "Does he miss often?”
X: "Yeah EVERY DAY!”
Me: "Maybe you being nice to him made him have a better day and not get in so much trouble he missed recess.”
X: "Maybe”

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Today we went to Art Cwass! In Art cwass we finished up our hot air bawoons on our yewwow paper.” In this high pitched squeal of a voice “Den we got to drawded on white paper!” I asked what he drew on white paper his reply was, in the same high pitched voice, “A castle for Medieval Madness.* First, I drew two triangles den I drawded two big lines like this…” He takes his finger and draws two, rather large perpendicular lines. “Den windows and den a door. Then all I need now is fwags!”

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And Gideon’s words for the day, Mothers Day Out has taught him how to sing Jesus Loves Me in sign language…sort of.

He sings:

Wes Jesus woves me,
Wes Jesus woves me,
Wes Jesus woves me,
I know the bible tells me I know.

In sign language, he can do the first part, but when he gets to the "the bible tells me so" part he just swirls his index finger around and around.

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*Medieval Madness is a Clinton City Elementary PTO organized fundraiser that takes place on Saturday September 24th. According to the PTO peeps (Shannon and I attended our first PTO meeting last night) transform the school into this Medieval village with games, events, and food all to raise funds for the school.  To see pictures from last year’s Medieval Madness go here.

Over the last few years the PTO has supplied all sorts of fun, interactive, and needed things for the school such as computers, online education tools, books, and over $24,000 for a new playground.

Fruit Woops

Today, September the firteenf and cwoudy.

"Guess what? We got to pattern Fruit Woops today... Den after that we got to eat them. Like on the first one, we had to do purple, purple, orange, then green, green, blue, den green, green, blue, den fill in the blank. Den the second one was red, blue, yellow. Red, blue, yellow, den fill in the blank. But den, I didn't have enough Fruit Woop colors. I needed one more blue fruit loop. So, I said 'Miss Holt, I'm losing a Fruit Woop and..." His eyes got really big, he put his hands together in front of his chest and moved his fingers. Imagine an mad scientist. "She gave me a hand full of Fruit Woops. But I only needed 1. I just think she just wanted me to have more Fruit Woops. Everyone but _____, ______, and ______  had two handfuls to make it gooder." He paused, looked up at the ceiling, and corrected himself,  "Better, I mean."

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Conversation between X and Mommy

X: "Guess what center I did today."

Mommy: "Ipods?"

X: "Nope Ipods are only in our class room 4 days a week." Then excitedly he says, "MAFF center!"

Mommy: "What you do in 'maff' center?"

X: "I built rockets. There were different color fire. For the first one, I needed 3 orange diamonds. and den 4...What do you call them that are cirlces but have 6 sides" and he's drawing one in the air with his finger

Mommy: "Hexagon."

X: "Yeah, 4 hexagons, and den a triangle and den 3 blue diamond's for fire again, and 3 whatever you just said, and then a triangle. Den I needed yellow, blue, and purple diamonds for the fire, and then 2 whatever you just said, and then a rectangle. And I don't remember any color for the last one. So, I built dat... and then guess whatever I was trying to make.... Mickey Mouse!"

I asked him what was most exciting or fun thing he did or heard about at school today and he said, "Everything was fun and exciting...Well, except when ______ stole a gummy. _______ stole a gummy from me at lunch. _________ was going to tell on him, but she didn't. I was going to tell on him... but I didn't."

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Now for Gideon. Yesterday was also a back to school bash for his Mother's Day Out program. It was a big carnival type thing games and snacks type stuff. If you ask Gideon, it was a Vegetable. That's Gidzilla speech for festival. Outside there was a cotton candy booth, popcorn, and snow cones booth. There were different stations set up all around with different kiddy games to earn tickets like a ring toss, plinko, and others. Gideon's favorite was the "Duck Swimming Pool" where he could pick "free(3) ducks" that had numbers on the bottom to represent the numbers of tickets he won. He also like the football toss.

At the end of the morning he had won 30 tickets. We went inside, where they were serving lunch and found a few more booths, including a cupcake walk. Gideon won a white cupcake on his first go around and the lady running the booth was kind enough to give 'salivating' daddy a cupcake. Inside he also "fithed (fished) for a thuckor" and got a dinosaur tattoo on his hand.

We then went to turn in our tickets. Gideon picked out a whistle, a purple compass/key chain thing for him, and a green one for his "bwover".

We ate lunch, I had a Pulled Pork BBQ sandwich and some chips. G ate a hot dog, some chips, some cheetoes, a cookie, and a brownie. The day ended with us going home and taking a nap.

"We are the Champions, my friend"

To start this day, Xavier wakes me up saying, “Daddy I need help with my toofpaste.” My weary eyes open and I notice it’s still dark, but I still say, “OK, just a minute.” A minute or so passes and I see the bathroom light come on. So he doesn’t wake his brother or mommy before they are supposed to, I yell, in a whisper, “Hey turn that off.” I get up to see what he’s doing. I look over at the alarm clock and it’s 3:14 am. UUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!

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"Daddy, you know what ______ did this morning?” “No.” “He took his hash brown put it in his mouth and shook his head like this…” Xavier starts shaking his head, teeth bared, like a dog tearing something up. I say, “really.” X replied with, “Yeah, he’s mean, just like ________ and he even talks while the teacher is talking.”

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Xavier had an “I helped out!” smiley face sticker on today, I asked what the sticker was about and he said, “I got it in Guidance because I behaved and be da Champion.” Because King Fibert’s team won today, guess who was on King Fiberts team, E___ and, you know who." He gets this smug, "yeah you know it" look.

"Den we read our champion book. that goes like dis;

We are the champions at our school,
at our school,
at our school.
We are the champions at ours school.
We know how to win.

We sit still and listen each day,
listen each day,
listen each day.
We sit still and listen each day.
 We know how to win."

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“Guess what? Den we had to go in groups. Guess what we drawed on our white piece of paper, as a team? It was sooo fun.”
What?
”It’s somefing I’m afraid of.”
”Aliens?”
”Nope”
”Thunderstorms?”
”Nope, turn on listening ears…We drawed tornadoes as a group!”

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”Den we sat back on the carpet we talked about some rules, I don’t remember them, and then we went to the treasure box.”

 ”What good are rules if you don’t remember them?”
“Ummmm… no good?”

Maybe he is my son after all, HAH!

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Oh and I forgot to mention last week we received his school pictures. Here is a sampling:

Mamaw’s and Poppa’s

Today when I picked him up he was happy. I asked him if he got to see Mamaw and Poppa today. He said, “Yeah, and I cried a little bit when they left” "Really?" "Yeah but I don’t want to talk about it.” “OK”

I then asked him about his day and he said, “I’ll tell you when we get in the car” I reply, “OK”

When we get in the car, I asked how his day went. He replied, “I’ll tell you when we get home.” “OK.”

When we get home and settled in I asked if he was going to tell me about his day; “No, I’m too sad to talk about it.”

So, after an hour and a half of him crying, me consoling, me making a snack, more crying, more consoling, and him finally calming him down, I asked again, “You gonna tell me about your day?”

X: “No”

Me: “Did you have a bad day?”

X: “Yeah…No…Yeah… No… Yeah… No… I don’t want to tell you about my day.”

Me: “OK”

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Eventually, over dinner, he opened up and was willing to tell me about his day.
They started the day with singing s “Days of the Week” song. That sings the days of the week, twice, then they whisper them , and then scream them.


This week they have been discussing family and since grand parents day is Sunday (9/11) they have been reading the book Abuela. According to X, “Abuela is a book about a gandmuvver that speaks Spanish, like M_______ ( a boy in his class) and her granddaughter. They are on an  adventure fwying in the air and then they land in a park. And in the park they want to ride bumper boats.” And that's about all he could tell me.

“and because of grand parents day Miss Holt made da cwass draw and color a picture of us. So, I drew a baby as me, a big Mamaw and her jacket,  and a little Poppa and his jacket.”

Grandparents were invited to eat lunch with the children today and I asked how many grandparents were there and he said, “One hundred fousand, twenty two, and ninety nine, dat's many Mamaw’s and Poppa's”

“After wunch the Mamaw’s and Poppa’s came back to the class room. We watched a tumble book. I don’t remember what it was about but it was funny. It was about this kid that was asleep. He woke up and said, 'What dat? What dat? What dat?' After that, they (Mamaw's and Poppa's) left.”

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In Gym today they had a climbing wall. I asked him if it was tall and with eyes wide open he said, “Wes!” I asked him how tall. He looked around for a moment, handed Shannon his sandwich, and said, “Dis tall.” He was measuring the height of the wall with his hands. The bottom of the climbing wall (his left hand) was at the bottom of his chin and the top of the climbing wall (his right hand) was at the top of his head. It was a lot funnier to see than it is to read.

After the climbing wall they did a hula hoop. Or, if you're Xavier, it's a "Hoowa Hoop." He really enjoyed that part and then, “After dat we came back to the room and did Maff. I wove maff.” He then blew three kisses in to the air.

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And finally. We received his Interim Progress report today. Here’s what it said:

Reading/Language Development – E
Writing Development – S
Fine Motor Skills – S
Mathematics Development – S
Work Habits – S
Behavior – E
Teacher Comments: Xavier has been a joy to have in class. He is a hard worker and extremely caring in the classroom. He knows the rules and enjoys following them. Continue to work on Xavier’s letter and sound recognition.

E = Excellent
S = Satisfactory

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And so we don't leave Gideon out. The kids were playing "dress up" when I got home. X was Batman and Gideon was an "intha" (that's Ninja in Gidzilla speach). Xavier was trying to jump rope and wasn't really getting it. Gideon jumps off the couch and says, "I'm gonna give you some of my intha (ninja) skillz power, Hyaaa, HYAAA, HYAAA." As he was giving his Hyaaa's and doing his ninja moves, he was circling Xavier in this very funny martial arts dance thing.

Short Week and Lazy Parents

Even though this has been a short week due to Labor Day, it has been crazy hectic with me working more cases and starting the next semester of school. I’ve not had much of a chance to ask him how his days have been going. I feel like I’m running ragged and as a good friend always says, “Busier than a cat covering up crap!”
Anyway, this blog isn’t about me. It’s about the adventures of Xavier and so here they are for this week.

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They’ve picked cloudy or rainy all week. X was scared at one point because Miss Holt said something about a Tornado and he thought it would suck them up. But there wasn’t and it didn’t.
Tuesday, Xavier told me that Mr. S is the Alphabet speaker of the week added “Daddy, did you know that T comes after S? That’s crazy!”

Mr. S’s song is slow and goes sort of like this:
I’m Mr. ESSSS, I go to bed and I’m kind of scared
I’m Mr. ESSS, I get out of bed and get into my super box to get my super socks.
I’m Mr. ESSS, I turn into my Mr. S Super Socks.
I’m not really sure that’s how it goes but that’s how he relayed it to me.

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Wednesday, was all about a “special” girly friend. Xavier told his mommy that him and ________ were at every center together, “I went to this center and she did too and I went to this one and she did too.”

Mommy said,”It sounds like she is following you around.”
X: “No, she picked first and then I went there.”
Mommy: “So you are following her around.”
X: “Why you say that?”

The conversation paused there and then picked up with Shannon telling me Later they were sitting in class, he is sitting behind her, she says, “I’m in love!”

Mommy “With who?”
X in his sarcastic DUUUUHHHHHH!, tone: “Well, she turned around and I was the one sitting behind her."
Mommy: “What does that mean?”
X: “Well, you don’t want to hear this mommy.”
Mommy. “Of course, I want to hear about whatever you want to tell you about your day.”
X: “Wet me tell you in your ear… I fink she whispered ‘I wove you.’”
Mommy: “She must really like you.”
“Yeah” and his cheeks turned red.. Our child blushed for the first time!
Mommy: “Flirting with some trollop better not interfere with his education”

AND WHO EVER READS THIS IS NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE FUN OF HIM OR EVEN ASK HIM ABOUT IT!

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To continue this crazy hectic week. It’s Thursday night and I once again not been able to really sit down with Xavier and find out about his day. When I tried he seemed whiney and didn’t want to talk to Daddy. So, Daddy left the room.

When I came back into the room, I catch the tale end of him telling a sad story. Apparently, today during his center work he picked the reading center. Well he had asked other kids if they knew how to read and they said yes. So Xavier tells his mommy that EVERYONE in the class can read. Well everyone except him and two other boys. And that because he can’t read he has “Lazy parents that never taught him to read.” I also over heard that he sat alone during centers work because he felt bad for not being able to read.

hmmmmm…

We’ve read to the child since Shannon was eight weeks pregnant (They are supposed to develop ear buds that soon… or so I’m told).

Shannon relayed a story to me. On the way home he had asked her what music they listened to in music class. She had guessed Little Einstein's and he replied, “uh, nooooo mommy, that’s for toddlers!” He then asked her to guess what movie they watched, he said he’d give her hints. a hint about a monkey he had said “Don’t guess Curious George, cuz that’s what Mamaw already guessed” and another hint “he’s trying to get a lamp” gave it away to be Aladdin. When she questioned why the music teacher made them watch Aladdin he replied “I don’t know, cuz she just wanted us to watch Aladdin.”

Well that’s about it. I feel kind of crappy not being able to talk to him much about school this week and to find out that we are lazy parents.

Supplemental Log

Since there is no school today and I wanted to post something here is what Shannon wrote about 8/22, the day I was out of town and didn’t get to talk to X about his day.

Mommy’s perspective b/c daddy had to be out of town for a family emergency (guest blogger)!

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This was the first day to officially not walk Kindergartners in, and he asked, “Don’t you want to walk me in?” Mommy: “Of course I do, but the teachers want you to start walking in by yourself. I would walk you in every day until you go to college, but you will grow tired of that. I will walk you to the door.”

When we arrived, Xavier and his friends had their normal conversation about E seeing “him walk from his car,” as she bounced down the steps. Well his good friend, T, that he talks w/ each morning caught us sitting in the car. She was upset that he had beat her to school, but delighted that she saw him in the car.

So the kids are talking and playing in the breezeway and T sees the Principal and says, “That’s the Principal!” The Principal says, “And that is a good little boy.” T says, “But I was the one that said it, and I am not a boy.” X gets very tickled about this and the Principals amends with, “Two good children”.

When it is finally time to go in; X lingers back from the group with me and his little brother. He is staring at the doors so I offer to walk him to the bottom of the stairs. He smiles and enters. At the bottom, he slows again, and I tell him to catch up to his friends. He looks sad and shuffles on w/ a pouty lip. I start off, but then look around the corner and he was looking back for me (oh my aching heart) and I receive the best, biggest, most beautiful smile. Then the smile falls and he blows out a puff of air and shuffles on down to the cafeteria alone.
 

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When I get to his grandmother’s house he greets me with, “Well, all I remember about the day was…” and I don’t remember what he said after this b/c I was too busy laughing at the fact that he sounded like an adult and his mannerisms were priceless. He wrinkled his face up as if he were thinking REALLY hard.

I asked if his “share with the group bag had been chosen, and with great commotion he said that his bag did not get picked and he rolled his eyes and said that the teacher ONLY picked three of them, and some kids had to take theirs’ back and some didn’t, and he left his, and he guessed the ones that presented took theirs’ back. He said this in one big exasperated breath.

So then he begins to talk about how he gets to push the lunch box cart, and was proud of it until later in the day when he realized that he is not the door holder or the leader of the line to lunch. “I put the lunch stuff on it and push it over to the wall with a bunch of other lunch carts.”
Then he begins to tell me that he “Got to go to the upstairs.” To someone “maybe called guidance.” The teacher is REALLY nice and he gets to go there each day to color and read. And he repeats, the teacher is REALLY, REALLY nice. She just really must have made a good impression.

And then with the most excitement I have seen from him he shouts, “And guess what section they opened today mommy!!! They have an iPod section, and there are little tiny iPods like the one daddy has and on the second page they have games for KIDS.” So I asked if this was the section he played in, and he said, “No”. So then I tried to figure out HOW they decide sections, and I have no clue!


And then we arrived home and all he was focused on was eating supper and playing basketball.

Mother McMuffin

This morning, before school, I tried to talk to Xavier again about how his artwork doesn't have to be perfect. I talk to him because according to Shannon he thinks that it's OK to miss recess to work on his coloring work. I tried to explain to him that all aspects of kindergarten are about learning. Even recess is about learning. His body is learning with muscle development. He is learning social skills. He asks me what that is and I tell him that social skills are about communicating with other kids, getting along with them, taking turns, working out problems and things like that. He replies, "I already know all that daddy, I learned that a long time ago. When I was four or maybe even when I was one."

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On Thursdays it's kind of hard getting any info out of him because he's spent so much time with Mamaw that he's forgotten his whole day. One cute thing he said at Mamaw's was that, "We had to go to recess early this morning because Miss Holt said it was going to be hot... Like half way between 1000 and 90 degrees. That's hot!"

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When we got home we tried to pry some memories about the day and here's what we got.

"In reading groups we had this little TV thing and right here (he points at an imagined top of the page) it said, This was written by blank and we had to write our name in it. We had to draw our favorite show. I kind of drew Thomas. I drew wheels, little piston thingies, I tried to draw the one but I couldn't. I drew the tank where the one goes and then I drew the red line. I drew the bottom of the one, and then the two sides of the one, and then I couldn't draw the curvy part. and then I made a funnel." The whole time he's drawing the shapes in the air, mimicking what he drew on the paper.

The second thing he had to draw was a turtle. "The turtle was carrying something on his back. I fink his shell. And we had to make something that started with the letter T

Mommy asked, "What you make?'

"A Tire."

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"Oh and guess what? we did nursery rhymes. we didn't to Old Fuddle Mc Fuddle again. but we started Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. had a wife and couldn't keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shell and there she kept very well.. or sumpting like that." After Peter Pumpkin Eater, we asked who was Old Fuddle Mc Fuddle. He pointed to me, and said, "You know that old lady Mcfuddle that we talked about westerday." I replied with "Old Mother Hubbard" He said, "Yes Mother McMuffin."

To scwibble or not to scwibble?

This morning I had to take X to school. As soon as we get out the door, he says, “WOW! What a beautiful day. The sky is bwue, the clouds are white. And dey wook wike cotton candy. It’s gonna be a great day!”

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So, I walk into the cafeteria, Gidzilla in hand, and as usual, they run toward each other and hug. Gideon looks up at me and asks “Can I go see his fends?” I said yeah, as this will give me a moment to talk to his teacher. When I get next to her she says “We’re having a bit of trouble with him getting his work done in time. He’s trying to get it perfect, which is good, but he needs to speed up a bit.” Really,” I ask. She says” yes, he worked through reading group and recess today.” I said ok and that I’ll talk to him.

When I get to the car, I have a little talk with him about getting his work done in time and his reply is “She told us not to scwibble and if I can’t scwibble, I can’t get it done.”

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After that conversation, He told me about their fire drill. He said, “Today, after recess while we were getting a drink, even though I didn’t get a drink, we had a fire drill.” Really?
Yes, they told us some stuff too, Code Brown is for earthquake, which we probably never have. Code Yellow is for a Tornado, and Code Red is for Fire. Did you get all them daddy, tell me what they are.”
So I repeat them back and he then repeats them back to me finishing with “There, that way you know what they are.”

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On way home, I hear from the back seat, Gideon asking, “ What center you do today?”
X reply, “Guess.”
Gideon, “ummmmm. wet me fink… pewtures?”
X, “Wow Giddy, you’re psychic. I did do computers today. Awesome!”

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When we got home he got really excited and said, “GUESS WHAT I GOT TO DO TODAY?!? PICK FROM THE TREASURE BOOOOOXXXXX!” His voice went up three octaves as the word box becomes the final note in a song.

He got to pick a silly straw from the treasure box. and was just too excited to live.

Flailing Chains

Today is the "firtieff" (30th) and I had to guess how many sunny days they have had in the week. I said 3, and could have been wrong  because he said, "I fink 2 or three I'm not sure."

---

As to how the first part of his day went : "After dat, I don't know but then I remember. We were gonna do centers but we did this first. the triangles had to be circled then we looked inside the little thing. and then we and at the first page. It had a ball, a ball, and a square. We had to circle all of the balls. The second page had a square, a square, a rectangle, and a square. We had to the mark the ones that were the same. Page three had these hat fingies. There were these colored hats things. We had to circle the hat that was the same..." Then he just started rambling a bunch of other stuff that really didn't make much sense.

---

So, he had me guess what center he went to today? I guessed computers and he said "Nooooo, bwocks... and we made trains.  Then _________ comes over. He's a mean wittle kid that pushes us around. I asked, "When you get pushed around what do you do?" He says, "Tell the teacher. Wait daddy you're not supposed to be writing this yet. HA! I forgot I forgot.. after centers is lunch break time. so you can go ahead and write that.

"I was eating my nennynems (M&M's), which you packed (and he wryly looked at mommy) that I didn't know that you even had. Thanks, Mommy. He (the mean wittle kid) tried to eat one."  

Me: "What did you do.?"

Xavier: "I tell him, No you can't have them!" But then he (the mean wittle kid) just said, 'heh heh heh, No, I will eat them. You won't tell me what to do. Cuz I'm the boss of everybody.'"

At this point Mommy is starting to giggle. Xavier looks at her and says "I'm not making this up"

---

At some point today, I'm not sure when, they were making a family tree in class. The stem part (truck and branches) were done by Miss Holt. Yesterday they painted the leaves and today they added apples to the tree. Each apple represents someone in his immediate family. Xavier explains, " We had to tell her how many people were in our house and she put that many on there... I got my mom, dad, and me and my brother. I could only put four people and could not put any animal.

---

I also learned, later in the evening, that he started crying at recess today. When asked why he answered, because there were kids swinging and the chains are gonna break and they'll fly through the air, with the chains fwapping in the air (And his arms are flailing about representing the fwapping chains) and they'll land way over there (he points) to where mommy drops me off.

---

Mommy also thinks that Gideon is being left out, so on the days he goes to Mothers Day Out I need to include his story as well. I will say that the first part of the day is not so good because the boy throws a fit not wanting me to leave him there. Of course, this pulls on my heart strings (which my wife says I don't have anyway). They all reassure me that he stops crying after about 2 minutes. But what kind of emotional scars is he going to have from his daddy abandoning him to the clutches of Miss Winda and Miss Kistee.

Anyway, when I ask him how his day went he doesn't really answer me. I ask if he learned a new song and he shyly begins singing something along the lines of

da roooles, da roooles

da roooles of da casswoom

keep you hands and feet, keep you hands and feet to youself

keep you hands and feet, keep you hands and feet to youself

and some other verse that I can't remember now. If I can't get him to sing it tomorrow I will post it.

Today he brings home a book that he, Miss Winda, and Miss Kistee made about him. Here it is:

 

Dat's Nice.

I was fussed at the other night because of my grammar and puncutation errors. So if anyone notices any errors, please let me know. Oh and don't forget to share (buttons at bottom) or like this post if you like it.

---

I was a few minutes late this afternoon. Me and Gideon were watching Blue's Clues and let the time slip away from us. It's amazing how captivating a little blue cartoon dog can be. I parked a block or so away, as I've been doing lately, and walked to pick Xavier up. Upon entering the cafeteria Xavier was up and ready for us. He bounds over, says "Hi daddy," gives me a pat on my back, hugs Gideon, and asks Gideon (while patting his back), "Did you miss me today?" Gideon said "yes." They then held hands and proceeded out the cafeteria doors.

When we get outside Gideon asks "What center did you do today, Yayo?"

"House Keeping," Xavier answers.

In this sweet, soft, unassuming voice Gideon replies, "Oh, dat's nice." I just smiled.

Xavier held his hand all the way to the car, being the best big brother by making sure his little brother stayed on the side walk.

---

Xavier told me that he had to miss recess today because had to draw to draw a shape man and Mr. T. Unfortunately, for me, it's not the same Mr. T that I remember and love from the The A-Team. This Mr. T is the same bear that was Mr. M and Mr. A but this time he sang a really sloooow song about teeth.

I'm Mr. TEEEE,  with my big Teeeeef. (yes, TeeF because Xavier is singing this to me after all!)

I need a big tooooof brush to brush my teeeeeef.

And that's all he remembers.

  

I asked about the shape man and he said "The shape man had a triangle, a square, a diamond, an oval, and every shape in the world! Except for a trapezoid and an octagon, I'm glad it didn't have those."

He wasn't in trouble, and thus had to miss recess, it's just that he was taking too long drawing those. Well, that's what I got from the story.

---

I've been squished a gazillion times today. You know, sitting in the breakfast, and sitting at lunch and sitting at pick up time. When people are sitting too close and it squishes me.

And finally,
On the way to the park today after school Xavier pipes up and says "Daddy, _________ (a boy in his class) was saying nasty stuff today."

Me: "Really, like what?"
X: "He was saying things about how his brover peed on the couch. And the brover peed in his eyeballs and peed in his mouf, and peed on his bed"
Me: "and how old is this brother"
X, wide eyed: "Oh he's just a baby! and that's why he pees on everything."

Socks.

While today was not a school day and this post doesn't pertain to school I still think it's funny.

Last year, Xavier said that he wanted to celebrate Chanukah instead of Christmas. Because you get to celebrate for 8 days instead of just one. So, tonight we were walking through the Hobby Lobby Christmas stuff and X says that he can't wait until Christmas. I remind him that he wanted to celebrate Chanukah he said "Nope, cuz all you get are socks. So, Christmas it is." Somewhere, he had heard that you only get socks on those eight days of Chanukah.

 

We walked into Old Navy and as soon as you walk in, all the Old Navy mannequins are right in front of you. Xavier says, "Gideon, I've found your long lost family. Even your long lost dog."

My Wucky Day

This morning Shannon walks Xavier to the cafeteria. When he gets to the bottom of the steps, a girl (I think it's his BFF from yesterday) comes running up to him and yells "XAVIER, I'M SO GLAD I FOUND YOU. NONE OF MY CLASS IS IN THERE, I NEED YOU TO HELP ME FIND MY CLASS." Xavier was ready to step up and be her knight in shining armor but didn't really know what to do. So he looked around confused.  But he wanted to help... that's the key.

It turns out when he got home it wasn't he BFF, but a different girl.

---

Today is the "twenty-sixf" and their calendar has "FIVE DAYS OF SUNNY! I fink that's all it's ever going to be."

Last Friday, Miss Holt sent home a small paper bag with directions for Xavier to put five small things in it that represents him and they will discuss the items this week. Well all week we have been asking him if Miss Holt chose his bag yet and he kept telling us no. Today his was finally chose and here's what he told the class about each item:

First was a small Trio building block, "I love to play blocks. I use dem to create animals, houses, and weapons.

Second was a small Batman figure: "Me and my bwover wove to pway Batman, My brover pways wiff me and we have the Batman Cave.

Third was a Galactic Heroes Han Solo: I like star wars, my whole family does, even my brother, me and my brother play star wars. Miss Holt told me that it was Han Solo, She said she knows Star Wars.

Fourth was, well let him explain: One day we were hiking at Angel Falls Overlook and found this, I don't know what it is. Another little boy said, "I know what it is." and Miss Holt said "what?" And the boy said "A wucky buckeye." So it's a Lucky Buckeye, go figure.

Last a rock: On weekends when I'm off school me and my family go play in water and I found this rock and it's a zebra kind of wooking rock."

Miss Holt said that today it was going to be between 90 and 100 degrees so they had to go to recess early in the morning.

---

"OH OH OH! and we read a tumble book." So, here is a transcript from the novella "I HAVE TO GO! as narrated by Xavier Follett:

It was sooo funny because it said the mom and dad  (in a high pitched Xavier voice) "ANDREW DO YOU HAVE TO GO PEE!" He said "No no no. And the dad said ( in the high pitched Xavier voice) "ANDREW DO YOU HAVE TO GO PEE?" He said, "No no no. When they got in the car Andrew said 'Mom, Dad, I have to go pee?"

When they got to grandma's house the mom, the dad, the grandma, and the grandpa asked "ANDREW, DO YOU HAVE TO GO PEE?" and he said, "No no no." They got outside and he threw one snowball and Andrew said "I have to go pee".

When they got back home they put Andrew to bed and mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa kissed Andrew good night and asked him, "ANDREW, DO YOU HAVE TO GO PEE?" He said "No no no." They all waited outside his door whispering "Any minute he's going to say I gotta go pee!"

Instead Andrew says " I wet the bed".

Xavier laughed so hard!

---

Today in Gym class he had to do some sort of step, hop, jump, twist game where they had to put their feet on these blue and grey footprints on the floor. "The bwue footprints faced this (and he pointed toward his right) side of the gym and the gray footprints faced this (pointing to his left) side of the gym. We had to bounce bounce bounce (and he's moving his index finger, mimicking his legs up and down)  Then there were footprints facing this way and that way we had to twist to get to them it was a lot of fun. AND for doing a good job I got to get something out of the Gym Treasure Box. It was a shiny, green, lucky coin.

"With my wucky Buckeye and my wucky coin, it's my wucky day, huh?"

No Jellyfish!

In today's Weather Calendar. They picked Sunny then he looks at me and excitedly says "Guess how many days are sunny  this week? We have 4 days of sunny and zero days of other days. We just have sunny days." I then ask the date and he says, "The twenty-fiff."

I was in music class and the music teach told us a story. "I was walking in the forest and then I heard footprints (they tapped 2 sticks together to mimic the sounds of slow footsteps) and a few minutes later the footprints were faster (same sound as above but a little faster). And then a few minutes later the footprints got faster and faster. I looked behind me and I saw a bear!" Then it was time to leave music class.

Excitedly Xavier jumps up and runs over to me:

X: "GUESS WHAT CENTER I DID TODAY?!?

Me: "What center?"

X: "COMPUTER!!! and guess what I played?"

Me: "Oregon Trail?"

X: "It's on PBS."

Me: "Wild Krats?"

X: "YUP! WOOHHOOO!!" and he gave me a high five.

X: I played Cheetah racer, ride on ramora, and a fish called remora that attaches to sharks and these... what are these fings that are black eyes and black fins, like birds that fwap up and down, and a sharp tail.

Me: "Manta rays?"

X: "Yeah mata rays, they attach on to manta rays but they don't attach to jelly fish cuz they sting."

I ask about Mr. M, and he turns and says, "How about you txt Miss Holt tonight and find out what letter is next week. Mommy said that Miss Holt is not going to give away the secret. Xavier says it's not a secret. Shannon replies with Why don't you ask Miss Holt? X says, I did and she said she didn't know.

Miss Holt read the Little School Bus book again. and according to X "She ONLY reads the Wittle School Bus book."

And finally, he was trying to describe what they do before they leave school, "The second fing we do before we leave is play recess. The first fing we do is shapes and the next fing we do before we leave is recess." - Meaning that they do recess and then they do shapes and then they leave for home.

Because some were having problems sharing this. I've included buttons at the bottom of every post to for sharing and spreading Xavier's adventure. At the bottom of this post click on the button of your preferred social networking site and viola the adventure becomes worldwide!

"Start Me Up"

Today, Gideon and I parked a few blocks away and walked to pick Xavier up. I'll probably start picking him up this way, so that we don't have to wait in that car line and it gives us a bit more exercise.

When Gideon and I got to the cafeteria, Miss. Keiser (sorry, if I spelled your name wrong) called out Xavier's name and he came running to us. Gideon ripped from my hand, they met in the middle, and gave each other a big hug. Then I walked over and asked Miss Keiser question about picking X up by walking. Xavier then asked if he could take Gideon and show all his friends. I said sure. So X grabbed G by the hand and led him to a few different kids stating that "This is my wittle brover".

While he was introducing G, Miss Holt said that Xavier is so cute when she is trying to explain things to him. His inquisitive facial expressions are great (maybe not her exact words but close enough). I asked if he was doing ok, and she said he was doing wonderful. I looked over and I saw a little blonde girl that Xavier was introducing Gideon to, who said, "OOOOH He is sooooo cute."

Our conversation on the way to the car.

 X: "Daddy, did you see that girl in the flowered backpack?"

Me: "Yes"

X: "That's ________. She's my best friend."
Me: "Best friend, huh?"

X: "Yup"

Me: "OK"

X: "She's cute, huh?

Then later:

"There is this person who is not in my class. A little girl, asked me how old I was. I said, but first, How old are you? She said she was 5." Xavier put his hand on his hips, got this smug look and said "I said that I was 6 and she went...." He dropped his jaw in this puzzling surprised look, mimicking the girls reaction. " and then there was this other little boy who said he was 6 too!"

While I type this up, Xavier is over there playing with Gideon. He jumps up ecstatically and yells, "Usually when we are singing Mr. M. I am doing drums or guitar!" and he does his strange Mick Jagger-esque dance/air guitar impression.... HA!. There's an visual impression for ya!.

He didn't really want to share anything else today. So, I left it at that. But apparently the most important thing he did learn today was the "exploding fist bump". Which he, in turn, showed his brother.

The Munchy Mouf

Today, (Yesterday) when we get home,  I asked how his day went. and as usual he starts out babbling stuff, until some key thing pops into his head that he focus' on. Today, he started by telling me something about lollypop sticks, putting back packs away, sitting on the carpet, looking at the smart board. Then he gets into the thick of the day.

Today is "August twentyfird." They picked and agreed that it was going to be Sunny today. After a pause, he says, "They have two days of sunny this week. Wanna know why? Every week she makes our weather calendar blank, so we can start new every week. But one day, later on, she'll stop blank-ing it so they can make a whole calendar of it.. and then, I think, until it's full and then she'll blank-it again."

He continued "Miss Holt, read that story that she read westerday. It, was so funny... (He started slapping his knee). The wittle school bus about these people that got on the school bus."

"The first one on is a hairy goat in his new winter coat. It's a rhyming book, just so you know. The second one on is, a pink pig, and on the pink pigs hair she has a pink wig, or something like that, i don't know. A pig in wig, a goat in his coat, are riding a school bus to school to school. Rising a school bus to school to school. the third one on the bust A big ol' fox, he has no shoes but he has socks. a Fox in his sock, a pig in his wig, a goat in his coat riding a school bus to school to school. A quick quick chick, a fox in socks, a pig in a wig, a goat in a coat. The fifth one on is a hairy bear, and his hair gets all over the place..." I'm not sure that's all of the story but that's where he ended.

Today they were learning about people's names. As soon as they learned someone's name they would sing the Happy Birthday song. "And then Miss Holt said 'Lets sing the Birthday song for Xavier but this time it's for real because his birthday was August 2nd.' and then they all sang for me!" and he got the biggest grin. :)

Went to tables and drew a school bus. Miss Holt was calling us back to that table because she wanted us to fill out these pages. "Yesterday the page said, 'I am' and then a blank. We wrote a name in it then we drew a picture. Today it said 'I like' then a blank. My friend Emma drew an Ice cream and so I drew an ice cream too. Then... this is sooooo funny... she said that she is going to draw a birthday boy."  and he's grinning again.

Through email. Miss Holt wanted us to ask Xavier Who is Mr. M? His answer: " he is this puppet bear and he is sooooo funny. When we were singing the A song he was Mr. A and now he is Mr. M. His real name is Mr. Alphabet but we shorten it to whatever letter we are learning that week. Ya know last week he was Mr. A. and this week he is Mr. M, and next week he'll be Mr.... Umm daddy I wonder what it'll be next week... Can you text Miss Holt and ask her?"

X started singing a song.. in this Bob Dillon-esc voice..

I'm Mr. EMMMM. With a munchy mouf

I munch from morning to midnight

from midnight to morning.

I'm Mr. EMMMMM.

I go much munch munch (he puts the back of his hand to his mouth and starts opening it and closing it like it's a big mouth) Munch.

I go munch munch munch.

I like Kool-Aid and Marmalade

and marshmallows dipped in chocolate syrup.

oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah (Repeat 10 times)

I'm not sure the "oh yeah" is in the song, but he was going with it over and over again.

After recess they learned about shapes. Trapezoids Triangles, Squares, Circles, Hexagon, Octagon. they watched a movie about them and then had a Quiz. Miss Holt asked questions about the movie to see if they were paying attention. Xavier was asked two questions he says he got one right and one not right.

He also told me of their procedure for walking down the hallway. They get "bubbles in your mouth" and shhhhh. It basically means pooch out your cheeks so that they look like bubbles. This is to encourage them to be quiet while walking down the hall."

And so I had to ask, "Does this work? Are you quiet in the halls?" He said "No, I mean, I always am but some kids aren't. Sometimes kids talk in the hall." Then he blurts out, "Three people went down the mountain today. 1 was at level 3. and two went to level two. They got bad notes sent home, I didn't get a bad not sent home today." I replied with "AWESOME!" and gave him a high five.

Return

Not a very exciting post this time. Due to certain events, I was not in town on Monday and when I called on Monday evening to ask him about his day at school he said that he had an interesting day. I asked him how, and he said it was too long of a story for him to tell me at the moment. That he would tell me when I got home. But most likely he will have forgotten some of it or all of it.

It's Tuesday afternoon and I just got home. I am going to take a shower and then go get the boys from school. I'll post again once I see hear how his day has gone today!

Modern Prometheus

So, the teacher opens the car door and X yells out "HI GIDDY! HI DADDY!" He's so excited he can't even get in the car. But then the mood turns...

Before we are out of the school parking lot, I hear a soft, meek little voice coming from the back seat "Daddy, please don't' get mad at me."

I look back at Xavier and asked why.

The soft little voice says, "I had to sit out for 5 minutes."

"Why?"

On the verge of tears, he says, "Because I said the 'S' word." and here come the tears... and then on cue Gideon starts crying too.

  

I told him that me and mommy would talk about it this evening when she gets home. A few minutes pass and he's telling me about his day.

Today is the "nineteenf" and today they picked that it was sunny. I don't know if this is the case or not but he's telling me the story as if the kids in his classroom choose what the weather will be each day. It's funny.

He also made, according to him, a little human today. "Miss Holt gave me a paper person  and then she gave me shorts, buttons, a shirt, and some hair. and then I glued the shorts, shirt and buttons. Then, Miss Holt told me to put some glue on the man's head and then put his hair and the hair will kind of stick. Then she gave me some googly eyes, but first I had to draw a mouth and a nose, and then she gave me googly eyes I glued them in place. and then uh...let me think. I had to flip it over and write my name on the back. That's how I did my human!"

I think I'll have a new segment in my blog called -

TALES FROM THE LUNCHROOM ::insert cheesy 50's sci-fi theme:: Today, one of his friends had raisins for lunch. He told Xavier that his raisin's were dead fish and they tasted like blood. AWESOME!

And finally, relayed to me from Shannon: Every morning, there is a little girl that wants to hold Xavier's hand. One day she dragged him down the steps. Shannon, and I, have been trying to tell him that he didn't have to hold her hand if he didn't want to. He's been trying to tell her no, but she is an insistent little girl. Well, today, she was trying to hold his hand, he kept telling her no but she didn't listen. Then, an older boy had commented on Xavier's Star Wars shirt and then they began talking about Star Wars and how Anakin was Xavier's favorite. The little girl then went and hid behind her grandmother.

Relayable?!?

Todays day was no less interesting or no less amusing for mommy and me.

Today, "the eighteenf" according to X, someone had picked that it would be sunny for their weather calendar. Even though he, and some others, would have picked partly sunny.

Today he "got to paint with his hands." Miss Robin, Miss Holt's helper, painted their hands with a roller and then they got to paint turkeys and leprechauns. I said to him excitedly "YOU GOT TO PAINT TURKEYS?!?" He replied "YES, We got to paint Turkeys for Thanksgiving Season and leprechauns for Leprechaun Season." Me and Shannon lost it laughing hysterically. To think, there is a leprechaun season is too funny.

 

I asked if Miss Holt read a story today and he busted out laughing saying Yes that the story was a hilarious story about "a mouse should not go to school, or something like that." He said that at the end of the book "the mouse made a controcious mess." I don't' know about you, but I've never heard of a "controcious mess." Another reason why we love kids and kindergarteners!

He also said that Miss Holt asked if anyone knew, in his own words "Mawy had da widdle wam."  "A few kids have never heard of Mawy had da widdle wam. So Miss Holt teached us Mawy had a widdle wam."

Toward the end of the trip home I asked a few questions about Miss Holt.

Me: Do you like Miss Holt?

X: Yeah

Me: Is Miss Holt Funny?

X: No

Me: Is Miss Holt Fun?

X: Yeah

Me: Is Miss Holt Smart?

X: Yeah

Me: Is Miss Holt....  ....I can't think of any other words.

X: Relayable? Is Miss Holt Relayable?

::laughing:: Me: Do you mean Reliable?

X: Yeah, that's it...Reliable... I don't even know what that means."

Mind reading and.....

On way home X called Shannon to tell her about his day. I heard about them learning the letter A again. He once again (as in the same as last night) story of how every week they are going to learn a new letter. They apparently did not read a story today but they did do the weather calendar (that's what it's called! in yesterdays post I didn't know what he was talking about)...

This is another example of how Xavier cracks me up. He told Shannon that "For their weather calendar, a kid picked that it was Sunny outside. We all agreed with him. AND I must have read his mind or sumpin because I was thinking it was sunny too. OR he might have read my mind!" Heh! My kid, the mind reader!

He had told me on the way home that his teacher had put a card in his backpack to tell about how he behaved today. Checked his backpack and there was no card!

Today, Miss Holt read some funny little book about a little kid named Andy. Andy got on the bus to go to school and he saw a monster that took all the room on the bus. Andy couldn't sit down. And later when kids went to learn, the monster threw toys and was a monster.

While I'm making Gideon's lunch,

Xavier tells me, "You know the girl that walks with me into school every morning. The one Mommy tells you about?"

Me, "Yes"

X, "Well, today in the hall, on the way to the lunch room, she asked me to hold her hand in the hallway."

Me, "Really?"

X, "Wes, and I wetted her hold my hand" (he can't say his L's and Y's so they sound like W's)

I am sort of shocked and don't really know what to say so I look away, and continue making Gideon's lunch.

A few minutes pass and he comes back to me and says

" She asked if I would hold her hand tomorrow too. I think I'll wet her"

Another funny quip and then I'm done writing for the day!

I'm sitting here writing this and he runs up to me and tells me that one kid had to move their bear moved today (see below) AND went to the principal's office! I asked what the boy did and in his words " One, he climbed up the rails. Two, he wouldn't listen to Miss Holt. and two wouldn't sit in his seat and two he climbed up the rails and three he went up the stairs."

*Their punishment system works like this, as far as my understanding goes; 1) a reminder. 2) a warning, 3) a bear move, 4) Principles office!