Where Did They Go?

December 20, 2009
5 years, 2.5months

I'm missing some really cute, chubby cheeks. Have you seen them?

July 28, 2005
9.5 months

Just a Couple of Things I'm Thankful For...

I love my silly boys!

Halloween

Yeah, ok. It has been FOREVER since I have written on my blog. But, hey! I have changed my background several times since the "Yellow Song" post!

I have a long story about Reagan's Halloween costumes. Yes, that was meant to be plural. Here goes:

For weeks Reagan was telling me all of the things that he wanted to be for Halloween: Wolverine, Bumblebee (a Transformer), Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, etc. I wanted to wait as long as I could before I bought a (singular) costume because I knew he'd change his mind many, many times. Finally, a couple of weeks before the big day, we browsed websites in search for cool costumes.

We saw a cool C-3PO (Star Wars) costume, and he liked that. Then we saw a really cute Handy Manny costume, and I thought for sure that he said he wanted to be Handy Manny. So I ordered it! The next morning I said something about him being Handy Manny, and he said, "No! I want to be C-3PO!". I asked David, and he said that HE heard Reagan say that he wanted to be C-3PO.

So I was wrong, and I fixed that mistake by ordering C-3PO. If you're keeping count, that is TWO Halloween costumes.

We also have a great Spiderman costume that he loves. He got it for Christmas. Three costumes.

On Monday before Halloween we had to go to Goodwill to search for David a costume. While shopping Reagan spied a devil's tail--complete with a tip covered in red sequins. He asked if he could have it, and I thought "why not". It was only a $1, and he could wear it around the house. He looked and looked for horns, but all we could find were these really curvey red sunglasses, and Reagan loved them.

On Friday at school we had a book character parade where the students (and teachers--but there is NO evidence of me as a Munchkin, thank God) dress like characters from their favorite book. We're lucky enough to have no less than 26 books about Star Wars so Reagan was safe to wear his C-3PO costume.


Uh, he's the gold one looking at his book. Sorry that it isn't a great picture.

On the actual day of Halloween he woke up wanting to be C-3PO. In the afternoon he wanted to be a cowboy (his costume LAST YEAR that we still have--costume count is now 5, if you count the devil tail and glasses). But by the evening when it was time to get dressed he wanted to be Handy Manny. Yippee!! I was relieved. I didn't actually get a picture of that, but I have the next best thing.



David dressed up like Reagan. What a great dad!

So here's why I have no pictures of Reagan as Handy Manny. When we got to my nephew's house to go trick-or-treating, Reagan changed his mind. He wanted to wear his devil tail and glasses. I tried to reason with him--have you ever tried to reason with a five year old? It doesn't work. And I decided this was a battle not worth fighting.

Unfortunately all we had was a green Frankenstein shirt. So he looked NOTHING like a devil.



At one house a person handing out candy said, "Here's some candy for the ninja. And some for Elmo. And some for the *pause* kid in the green shirt."


Oh my.

Don't Forget the Lyrics

For those of you (all of us) that do not know the words to the Yellow song, here they are! Reagan was thoughtful enough to write them down for you. (excuse my voice--I'm a teacher, not an American Idol)

He kind of did some short hand and just drew the pictures of the "early morning sun", "daffodils and baby ducks", "lemonade and scrambled eggs", "smiley face", and "happy fellow". But I think you get the idea.

Here's the story: Reagan's class learns a color of the week, and there is a song for every color. The first week of school was the week for yellow. He actually first learned these songs during his second year of TPK when he was 2 and 3, but he wasn't writing then.

When he was outside this morning he found his yellow sidewalk chalk. I told him to write "yellow" for me--he had done this at school last week for his teacher, Mrs. Burch. I wasn't expecting him to write out the whole song!!!

I'm just a tiny bit proud. :)

A Cold Snap

Instead of the high temperature being 112 today, I think it was more like 92 or so. Reagan felt the difference, and dressed like this. To go to Fry's. Really.

I don't know what got into him, but all of a sudden he had to wear his winter hat because "it is cold outside, and I don't want my head to get cold." Um, ok.

But why the backpack for a shopping trip to an electronics store?

He did take his wallet (which is in his hand), but there was no money in the wallet. Just a nerf dart from a dart gun.

I don't know how much that'll buy him.

I don't think I need to explain the video. But someone needs to explain to me what the fascination is with dirt in your face.

A New Adventure

In September of 2006, when Reagan was almost 2 years old, he started going to Treasure Patch Kids (TPK) which is a mother's day out program at a local church here in Round Rock. I cried when I dropped him off...for his whole FOUR HOURS of time away from me two days a week. He loved his teacher Ms. Patti, and he was excited to go back the next year.

In 2007 he entered Ms. Kelli's class at TPK, and he made great friends (Cash is his buddy). He learned a lot through that year, and I was excited about the next year because two of his life-long friends (yeah, I know he's only 3 at this point) were going to be going to TPK the next year.

Last year, 2008, was a big change. Reagan continued going to TPK and was in Ms. Brenda's class. Cash was still in his class, as well as Kennedy and Kendall...although I really think the boys played with the boys, and the girls played with the girls. On the three days that Reagan was not at TPK he was at preschool at Rainbow Station. He started preschool because I went back to work teaching in Cedar Park. Reagan has really learned many things from his teacher Ms. Aatif at Rainbow Station--he writes his name, draws pictures, traces and copies pictures, writes his friends' names, counts to 124 (random, I know), sings nursery rhymes, etc. And he liked going to Rainbow Station...most of the time.

Well, tomorrow starts a new school year for me. And for Reagan. Reagan has been fortunate enough to get into the ELE Friends program at the elementary school where I teach. This is an amazing program!! It is a literacy based program that pretty much follows the pre-K Leander ISD curriculum. The neat thing about ELE Friends is that it is made up of faculty member's kiddos--3-5 year olds--but they work with little kids from the district that have developmental disabilities. (ELE is the program for the district kids...the Friends are the faculty kids.) Not only will he be learning a fabulous pre-K program, but he will also be learning empathy, patience, tolerance, etc. Another great thing about it is that we'll be saving about $600/month in tuition!

He will be on my schedule. So if I have a staff development day, he still has school. He will be waking up early tomorrow for his first day. I'm looking forward to spending the mornings with him on the way to work, and I am thrilled to be in the same building with him all day! This is such a huge advantage that teacher-moms have. I imagine peeking in on him or seeing him at lunch, and I think that will just make my days even better.

All of this is a tad bitter-sweet. I'm sad that Reagan will no longer be going to TPK. I loved the Bible based curriculum, and he has made some wonderful friends. I was hoping that he'd "graduate" from there this year...

This is a huge change for our entire family. Since I have to be at work at 7:15, so does Reagan! He usually wakes up at 8am, and now he'll be getting up around 6am! I'm assuming this means that bedtime will be around 7pm...which is usually when David gets home from work. So David's schedule will also be changing.

Our new adventure begins tomorrow...