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."