Panda-moni-No

She said no to the speaking part. She was really torn between doing it and her fear of the unknown. She was worried about: where the musical was going to be performed, what the stage was going to be like, who were the other kids that had speaking parts, would they be on the stage the same time as her, would she still be able to sing with the rest of the class. It was too overwhelming for her and she told the music teacher she would like to pass this time. The teacher told her that I needed to send her an e-mail letting her know I agreed with Morgan's decision. Morgan and I discussed things and came to the conclusion that she would decline the part this, but would like to be offered a speaking part at the next play, once she had an idea of what this part would entail. The teacher was very understanding and said that she would keep Morgan in mind for next time. I'm sure she would rather have her back out now then have a crying, panicked kid clinging to the curtains on performance night.

Panda-monium!

The kindergarteners are putting on a school muscial in December called A Bear-Y Merry Holiday. Morgan's class will be the Panda bears, so she's supposed to wear black and white. Luckily, Gymboree is carrying a Panda Holiday line. I got her this shirt with a black velvet and tulle skirt. Doesn't that work out perfectly?!

While practicing Morgan's song, she was singing Pandamonio. I spent way too long aruging with a 5 year old on whether the word was pandamonio or pandamonium. Nothing like a five year old telling me pandamonium didn't even make any sense. I finally had to tell her to ask her music teacher what she was supposed to be singing.

We also found out that Morgan was picked to be one of the four kids with a speaking part. We were thrilled but also surprised. This is the same girl who hides behind my legs, clings like crazy and grunts when a stranger says hi. She does, however, perform in front of all the parents in gymnastics when they have exhibition week so at least she has some experience. She's still not 100% sure she wants to do this. We told her she could think about it for a few days and then decide, but once she makes a choice next week, it will be final. Her lines are:

Quick, open the doors and let them all in! Then, at last, the fun can begin.

She already knows them fairly well so I think she'll do it. Her main concern about doing the lines was 1) being on stage by herself (which she won't) and 2) that she would still get to sing the songs with everyone else (which she still will). Will see next week what she's decided.

Belongs

We enter the Center where Morgan is starting her therapy. When the therapist comes out, Morgan drops to the floor, rolls up into a ball and hides behind my legs. Any other time I would have felt embarrassed. I would coax her out with words about how inappropriate her behavior is, especially for a five year old. I would cringe that others were looking at my child, rolled up on a dirty floor and judge her, judge me. But not here. Here this is par for the course. They've seen it all before. The therapist gets on the floor and puts her head down too, peaking out once in awhile to grab Morgan's attention. It works and Morgan swings to the other side of the pendulum. She's jumping on the therapist, whom she just met. She's racing down the halls. She's distracted and diorganized. From 0 to 60 in a couple of seconds.

But once again, here it's OK. Here it is expect. Here she belongs.

The Princess and the Pea - Part 2

Remember the story about the Princess and the Pea? After too many mornings of tears and frustration over getting dressed, the Queen finally called the town doctor for advice on how to deal with this behavior. The Queen and King were at their wits end on stopping this defiant behavior. And that is when the doctor informed them that the Princess had Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD.

What is SPD? It's a neurological issue where the body has difficulty processing information from the five senses, the sense of movement (vestibular system), and/or the positional sense (proprioception). It's like walking outside into the bright sunlight after being indoor and your first response is to squint and block the light with your eyes. After a few seconds, your body adjusts and you are fine. But for people that are over-responsive, their body's don't adjust. A misplaced seam on a sock can cause severe discomforted to the point where they can be writhing on the floor in literal pain. A pencil dropping on the floor can sound like a canon going off. And then there are those who are under-responsive to stimulation. They might not respond to a normal voice command, they might not notice smells that others complain about. Thirdly, SPD can manifest itself in seeking behaviors. A Seeker might intentionally fall on the floor or bump into items. A Seeker might crave "squishy" activities. Usually a person with SPD has a combination of these main elements.

Morgan's main diagnosis is tactial overresponsiveness, auditory underresponsiveness with vestibular and proprioception seeking.

She hates to walk on grass barefooted, claiming it's too itchy.

• She never liked playing in sandboxes.
• She complains that her seatbelt is too tight - even when it isn't.
• Hoodies, jeans, zippers, buttons, tights, socks, shoes and boots bother her.
• Her hair, shirt sleeve or shirt collar is always soaking wet from constantly chewing on it.
• She is constantly jumping on the furniture, crashing against the floors and walls.
• She inappropriately climbs on, clings to and enters other people's personal space - often accidently hurting someone.
• Once she gets excited, it appears as if she's lost all control of her body - she doesn't know where her limbs stop. She often trips and flops around.
• She spins constantly.
• She often sits upside down (hanging from the couch) and likes to be flipped.
• She has frequent, intense tantrums that last for an extensive period of time.

The list could go on and on but you get the gist of it.

I was a member of an online parenting community for the first several years. There was a group of us that had what we called "High Needs" children: children that needed more attention, more redirection, had more frequent and more out of control tantrum, and had excessive energy. Children that just didn't seem to be as easy to raise as the majority. I have since found out that two other kids from this group have SPD. I would not be suprised to find out that more of them have this.

I'm learning a lot as we go through this process and I'm excited to learn more. I'm just another mom who's trying to navigate my way through the world of SPD.

Birthday Party Times Two

This weekend we had two birthday parties to attend. The first one was Saturday night for our neighbor Madison. The kids (and adults) had a blast jumping around.

The second party was on Sunday at the gymnastics school for Morgan's daycare best friend Taralyn. This was the first time the girls got to see each other since they started their new (and different) kindergartens. Despite going to bed late the night before, Morgan awoke two hours earlier then normal on Sunday. To say she was excited to see Taralyn was an understatement. To add to the excitement, Ellie was also at the party. These three girls are exactly alike and despite being apart for so long, they were all three saying the same phrasing and using the same mannerisms.

The three moms agreed that we would have to get the girls together more often.

What I Did On My Fall Break: By Morgan

Each student got a chance to tell the class what they did over Fall Break. Did Morgan pick swimming in the ocean? Watching the Mayan's dance? Perhaps snorkling? Or feeding the fish off the pier? The winning answer:

"I went to Minnesota and drank Sprite"

Looks like we could have saved ourselves hundreds of dollars and ten hours of flying. Are you kidding me???!!

Mexico Recap

We had a wonderful time in Mexico staying at the Barcelo along the Mayan Riveria. The Barcelo is made up of five different resorts all in a row. While we were there, only two were open. Between the economy, the flu scare and the drug wars going on at the border, not many people were traveling to Mexico. It was dead. The bad thing about this was that two of the pools were closed as were most of the restuarants and buffets. The good thing was that there was no issue finding an empty chair on the beach, no lines at meal time and you could always find a desserted area to escape to.

We don't have many pictures of the trip since the days consisted of: eating, going to the kid's water park, eating, going to the beach, eating, going to the regular pool.

The kid's water park was great. There was lots for the kids to do, the water was shallow through out and Mark and I could relax along side it while Morgan made friends.

So it would only make sense that Morgan would prefer to the regular pool where she's unable to touch, can swim enough so that she's a danger to herself and needs to hang on one of us at all times. No relaxation here for the adults!

She tried snorkling for the first time and was a natural. The girl who can only swim a few feet and then frails around in a panick when she has to take a breath out of the water could swim the length of the pool with a snorkle in her mouth. It what a length it was! She would just slowly flutter along, as relaxed as could be.

We took a half day trip to Tulum. You can tell that Morgan was extremely excited to be here.





To her credit it was extremely hot and humid but still, she managed to put on the performance of her life time. After we had a Coming to Jesus talk with her and she calmed down, we stopped in the shade for a rest where there was another family having this conversation:

Father: I don't know why we bother trying to give them new experiences. They don't appreciate it and it's just a waste of money.

Mother: We should have just redone our kitchen instead. I mean look at them!

Mark and I exchange knowing glances and we moved on feeling a bit better knowing we weren't alone in our situation.

Morgan perked up a little bit when she got to get up close and personal with the local iguanas.

But it wasn't until we were back at the beach when Morgan really felt happy again.


Despite being pummetted by waves, she enjoyed Boogie boarding while Mark and I played goalie. One of stood between her and the ocean so she didn't get sweeped out and one of us stood between her and the beach so we could pick her up when she flounder around too much.


The grounds were beautiful with lots of lizards and igunana to see.



This is one of the many angels through out the courtyards outside the rooms.

Each afternoon Morgan was excited to discover what kind of towel animal the cleaning crew left behind.

We even got in a few rounds of putt-putt golf.


We made friends with a family from Mexico City who had two daughters 4 and 6 years old. Morgan asked the mom if she was Mexican. The mom said that she was half Mexican and half Chinesse, then asked Morgan what she was. Morgan shrugged her shoulders and stated "Regular". Looks like we'll be having to work on that one!

I think Morgan understood that she was in a different country and it was good for her to experience a different culture. She kept asking how to say different things in Spanish and wanted to know if they were going to celebrate Halloween. We explained to her about the Day of the Dead and was able to show her examples of what they did.

When we got home, we were faced with quite the climate change. Denver had received two feet of snow and was 20 degrees. Too bad Mark only packed flip-flops on the trip! We arrived home safely with our car stuck in snow, half in the driveway half in the street.

Lost in Translation

This weekend we leave for Mexico. Morgan hasn't been very excited about the whole thing even though we explained we would be at the beach and swimming pools most of the of the time. She loves the beach and she loves to swim so I was a little confused to why she wasn't more enthusiastic.

This morning, as we are on the way to school with snow on the ground, bundled up in winter jackets and hats, she makes a comment. I can't remember the specifics of the comment but it made me realize something. At that moment, I realized that she thought it was going to be snowy and cold in Mexico. And what fun is the beach going to be in the cold?

When I explained to her that it was still summer weather in Mexico, her level of enthusiasm shot straight up. She's now thrilled to be going and can't wait to hang out on the beach.

Parent Teacher Conferences

We had our first Parent Teacher Conference for Morgan and it went much better then expected. The teacher does notice that she has issues sitting still and she is annoying her classmates during circle time by sitting too close, poking them and hugging them too tightly. But the good news is that, despite these issues, she's learning and thriving. She is proficient or advance in all areas, excelling in the reading and writing department.

Unfortunately, for her report card, she did receive partially proficient in her writing. Nowadays, report cards are based on an assessment (test) given on a specific day, not on their overall ability that the teacher observes through out the weeks. So... if you have a stubborn little girl like we do, who decides on this particular day that she doesn't want to complete the assessment, you wind up with a partially proficient score. When she was writing her story, she drew herself and a lion but didn't not add details to show that she was at the zoo despite her teacher's coaxing. Below the picture she wrote "I WEN TO THE ZOO AD SW A LN" (I went to the zoo and saw a lion). Her writing is considered advanced but because she did not include details of the "where" in her picture (even though it was in her writing), she was marked down. The teacher told us that she usually completes the who/where/what requirement but since this was the assessment, there was nothing else she could do about the the report card score.

Welcome to the Public School System!

Silence - Wordless Wednesday

Since things have been so chaotic in our household the last few weeks, I thought we could all use a few rare moments of silence.

Blue

Morgan is always picking out things that are blue because "it's my dad's favorite color". She goes to the doctor and gets to pick out a sticker, she picks the one that is blue. She picks a blue swim noodle at swim class and proudly announces to the teacher her dad's favoritism. Blue M&Ms are put to the side to save for dad.

Some day she's going to be crushed when she finds out his favorite color is really green.

Mills Lake

Now that's Morgan is in school, I got to do something with my parents that I haven't done in five years - take an adults only outing. We went up to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked to Mills Lake. I read the trail wrong and thought it was only 2.5 miles long. Turns out it's really 2.5 miles one way, plus they don't start counting the miles until you get to Alberta Falls. The whole trail ended up being 6 miles long. Whoops! But my folks were troopers and attacked the mountain without any problems. The view of Longs Peak at the top was definitely worth it.









Now they are ready to do Longs Peak. Well, maybe not quite.

Houseguests

I haven't had a chance to post much this week because I've been enjoying my parents visit. Pictures to come soon. Until then, enjoy this picture Mark took on our doorstep.

That's a spider eating a praying mantis. I asked Mark what happened to the spider and he said that it he just let it be. Great. Now there's a killer spider somewhere in our front yard just waiting to attack. And can I just add that's one messed up looking spider!

Shudder!

Spirit Week

This week has been Spirit Week at Morgan's school. Monday was Sport's Team Day and Morgan was sporting an orange Bronco shirt. Tuesday was PJ Day and Mom and Dad were only too happy to be able to send her off to school in her PJs. No changing involved!

Yesterday was Cowpoke day and Morgan wore a cute plaid dress with her hair in two braids. I wanted to get some pictures of her in her outfit, but she had some demands. First, I had to take a picture of her holding Tonka's paw print looking all pitiful.

And then, she wouldn't stay still, but had to take twirling pictures.


Anyway, you get the gist of how she looked.

After school, they had their first school dance - a country hoedown. All week Morgan was telling us she didn't want to go so we were going to skip it. When I went to pick her up from school, the dance was already in full-force and she didn't want to leave. Morgan hung out mostly with the older girls she knows, but also stayed close to one little girl in her class named Nicole. We stayed all the way until it ended. I was exhausted just watching all the kids "dance" which was more like run around wild. She was all wound up, but I was ready for bed!

It's All in the Details

When you are searching for the Discover Kids show Peep to watch On Demand, you might want to verify which channel you are accepting or you might get more then you bargained for! I'm just saying...

2009 Version of Cliques

It used to be East side versus West side, nerds versus jocks but now there's a whole new division of cliques going on. That's right, it's vampires verses wizards at Morgan's school. According to Morgan there are several kids that are vampires. REAL vampires. For real. But I shouldn't worry because she's not a vampire. Nope. She's a wizard. For real. And it's a schoolyard fact that vampires are not allowed to play with wizards and that is precisely why she can not be friends with Ashely. Cause she's a vampire. For real.

Sickness

On Thursday Morgan and I got our flu shots. By Friday we were both sick. As of Sunday night, she still had a fever of 101 so Mark stayed home with her today.

She is not your typical sick child. She's always hated sleep. She fights it like nothing else. Being sick does not change this. Instead of sleeping the days away, she's moaning and tossing and turning, trying to stay awake with every last ounce of effort. Her eyes have been bloodshot and unfocused and still she doesn't give in. We've tried explaining that sleep will make her feel better, but she refuses to accept this.

She also has a terrible cough. When she does finally fall asleep at night, she is jarred awake by her coughing. Since OTC cough medicine has been banned for kids her age, we have tried giving her honey. While she would gladly slurp down any "real" medicine and goes so far as to request meds even when she is feeling fine, she will not swallow a teaspoon of honey. She is locked jawed, thrashing her head back and forth and crying that honey is too gross.

Oh, the oddities that are Morgan.

Lessons Learned

Even though we had cut down our dead tree flush to the ground, we still needed to dig up the root ball and remove it before the new tree was delivered and installed. There was an option to pay $65 for the nursery to do this, but we thought we could easily do this on our own. The tree was only four years old, how hard could it be? The answer: pretty dang hard.

Mark thought he could dig up the root ball and remove it with his hands. After digging a hole twice as big as we expected, he still wasn't able to get the ball out. So he hooked up his tow rope and decided to pull it out with the SUV. The tow rope broke. After a trip to Home Depot and dropping $50 on a metal chain, he was able to pull the ball out. There was one little catch. Without thinking, he had driven the SUV into the garage, not across the street. So now, the SUV is stuck in the garage with a giant root ball behind it and no where to go. We couldn't hook the chain up to my car either because part of the metal chain you would use to attach to the hitch also broke in the process. Mark was going to have to work at home the next day and then beg the workers to take away the root ball. Backed by $20 the workers were more then happy to take it away.

So... that's $25 for the old tow rope, $50 for the new chain with will also have to be replace at around $25 plus $20 for the workers. That's a grand total of $120. Plus the hard labor and time lost.

Moral of the story: If you are going to pay almost $500 for a tree and the installation, you might as well throw in the extra $65 to remove the current tree.

On a happier note, we now have a beautiful, more mature tree in front of the street and no homeowners fine.

Random Thoughts

1. Week 5 of Kindergarten and Morgan has finally stopped having melt downs after school. Hopefully typing this does not curse me.
2. Morgan is on a football kick. She LOVES the Broncos (sorry Mom and Dad, I tried) and she's a loud and boisterous fan. A commerical came on about being a fan and she started yelling at the tv "Hey! We are Bronco fans too! You got that?!" During last night's game, she drew a picture of a Bronco cheerleader. Mark is so happy, I think I might have caught him crying tears of joy.
3. This weekend we dropped almost $500 on a tree. For our street. Most likely because the builder did not plant them correctly since over 30% of the trees in our neighborhood are dead. I am bitter.
4. While looking at trees, there was one with a bird's nest in it. Morgan wanted that one. Badly. Because it came with a bird. Much to her disappointment, we did not get that one.
5. On Sunday we had a great time with Joann at our church picnic. Her and Morgan entered the three-legged race. It was the first time Morgan attempted this. She needs practice. But she did have fun.
6. We were supposed to go on our last camping trip of the season this coming up weekend but cancelled. It has turned way too cold for this to be enjoyable. I'm very sad it's time to winterize the camper already. Boo hoo.

We Are Family

Before heading to Worthington, we made one last stop at Pipestone National Monument. Pipestone contains quarries that the Native Americans used to carve out their pipes. The area is still considered sacred by many American Indians. It is not a large park, but is very interesting and contains a beautiful trail by a waterfall. Morgan grabbed a Junior Ranger booklet and completed all the activities. Her favorite thing to do was cut the pipestone. I think she could have done that all day. After she completed the booklet, she received her second Junior Ranger badge. She also got her National Park Passport book stamped and now has a grand total of four stamps.

We arrived in Worthington just in time to surprise Mark L for his birthday party. We had a great time catching up with family.

Morgan and Ava. Ava was born one week after Morgan.

Morgan, Amy and Grayson. Grayson was a newborn at our wedding. Now he's getting so grown up.





Ava, Morgan and Alizah were all born within a month of each other. Alizah's first, then Morgan, then Ava.

This was the first time we got to meet Alizah's little sister Hailey.

Morgan had a bit of a crush on Grayson. Morgan announced to Grayson - I love you... and now I'm going to kiss you. And then planted one on his arm. This was followed by Ava screaming Eeewwww! Morgan just kissed Grayson. When she gets older we'll need to explain what cousins means.

The first generation of cousins: Amy (Grayson's mom), Andy and Amy (Alizah, Hailey and Jaxson's parents), Mark and I, Anni and Pete (Ava's parents) and Aaron and Mandy. Missing from the picture: Randy. Not able to make the party: Aaron and Amy K, Alisha and Mitch, and Matt. Yes, it's a very big family.

Omaha's Wild Kingdom

For Labor Day weekend, we headed up to a family gathering in Minnesota to celebrate Uncle Mark's birthday. We decided to break up the drive on the way there so we left on Thursday after Morgan got out of school and drove to Kearny. Once there, we did the math and figured out we could stop in Omaha and visit the zoo. I know what you are thinking: wow. The Omaha Zoo - that has to be thrilling. Oh! But it is. It's one of my favorite zoos.

We decided to hit the highlights and visit three buildings: The desert dome with the Kingdom of Night below it, the Scott aquarium (which we had never seen before) and the Lied jungle building. One of the best things about this zoo the fact that you are emerged in the environment and that many of the exhibits are cageless. For example these two guys in the dome are roaming around freely. There's no glass, no wires, nothing between you and the wildlife. Or I should say the less dangerous wildlife. Of course the bobcat is safely tucked away from us.




The Kingdoms of the Night shows the nocturnal animals in their natural settings. Highlights include a "bottomless" pit right along side the trail. You can put your hand right into the water. Unfortunately the illusion was broken by some idiot who had thrown a coin in the pit and you could see it "hanging" in mid-air about four inches down where, apparently, the glass floor starts. There is also a bat cave with a 70 foot ceiling. My favorite exhibit is the last one - the swamp with the floating boardwalk. It features a Trapper's Cabin, a beaver lodge, cypress trees and 30 swamp animal species, including opossums, beavers, muskrats (or a river otter or something), in barrier free habitats. This would be Morgan's least favorite due to the alligators that are right under foot. Since all these exhibits are in the dark, it's hard to get any good pictures.

Next, we headed over the Scott's Aquarium. Morgan stopped to show us how excited she was to be at the zoo.

Again, because of the glass, it was hard to get any good pictures at the aquarium. It wasn't a very large aquarium, but we managed to spend quite a bit of time there. We spent a lot of time watching the Antarctic penguin exhibit in the beginning. There were two baby King penguins but boy, they were not little. They were as tall as their parents at about three feet tall. They towered over all the other types of penguins. It was hard to believe they were babies.

We also spent a lot of time sitting in the shark tunnel and watching the sharks and stingrays swim all around us. There was also a blowfish that was checking us out.

New to the zoo this year was the Skyfari - an arial view of the park. The ride takes you in an open air lift over the giraffest, cheetah yard, Garden of the Senses, the lagoon, monkey island, elephants and rhinos. It was really neat to get this different view of the animals. We were so close, we could have jumped on the animals backs.

Our last stop was the Lied Jungle building, the largest indoor rain forest, where one follows a jungle path while observing animals that are free ranging or contained behind water and rock barriers. Below, Mark is thrilled to be demonstrating how to cross one of the rope bridges.



This curious little guy is right on the railing you see above. There is nothing between it and us. If it wanted to, it could jump right on our shoulder. Mark wanted to come back with a banana in his pocket and see what would happen.

Futher down, a sloth was literally hanging directly over our heads.


Lucky for us , it was bat feeding time when we walked through. See those two brown shapes in the top center of the picture? Yep. Bats. About 50 bats swarming back and forth among the food. And no. These are not behind glass either. And yes. They were dive bombing right by our heads. Strangely enough, Morgan, who was freaked out at the bat cave where the bats were safely tucked behind glass, stood here for a long time calming watching the bats fly to and fro. I, on the other hand, wasn't quite as calm. As another panicked visitor pointed out to her boyfriend who was telling her to look at how calm that little girls was: Yes, but she's short so the bats aren't right at her head!

Although we only did three buildings and the Skyfari, we were at the zoo for almost 5 hours. When it was closing time, it was time for us to drive on to Luverne, MN - our stop for the night.

(As a side note, the zoo is opening a new Madagascar exhibit to house rare lemurs and orchids. The zoo has a multiyear wish list that includes an Arctic Center, a new elephant habitat, an Australian exhibit with kangaroos and an Antelope Valley exhibit. All good reasons to keep coming back year after year.)

A New Smile

That night, Mark and I replaced the note with three gold Sacagawea dollar coins along with some "fairy" glitter. When Morgan made this discovery in the morning she was very relieved that the Tooth Fairy expected her note. With deep reverence, she gently scooped up the "fairy" glitter and placed it in a ziplock bag for safe keeping.

Whenever I get a glimpse of her new smile, I can't help but think she looks like a little boxer.

A Lost Tooth (Literally)

It should be a peaceful Saturday morning but instead I hear a door open and the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the hall. With one eye open I see that my clock reads 5:58. Saturday at 5:58 is way too early for any sort of movement but it's clear Morgan doesn't feel the same way. She comes bounding into my room full of excitement.

Mommy! Mommy! Look!

The sun is barely across the horizon so I can hardly make out the small white treasure she holds in her hand.

It came out! It came out!

Trying to find a balance between enthusiasm and hope that more sleep can come I tell her how great that is, but it's really, really early and she should really try and go back to sleep. She has a million questions about the Tooth Fairy including whether or not she can still visit this morning since the sun isn't all the way out yet. I tell her to go back into her room and try and sleep more. She skips down the hall.

Mark is now awake and he takes over. The two of them go downstairs to do some art projects. She is still clutching her precious pearl in her hand. They get absorbed in what they are doing and only later realize that the tooth is no longer with them. We look all over for it, but it can't be found. It either went in the air vent under the table or got thrown away during clean up time. Morgan's only concern is whether the Tooth Fairy will still come.

We write a letter to the Tooth Fairy explaining the situation, apologizing to the fairy and wishing her luck on finding the missing tooth. Morgan signs it and puts it under her pillow for the night.

Wiggle Room

I was helping Morgan finish up brushing her teeth last night, when I noticed that her bottom tooth looked like it was getting crooked. I put my finger on it and without any effort the tooth bent into a 90 degree angle. Since I'm not good at all with blood, guts or weird looking teeth I almost passed out. I was thinking "oh my gosh, she broke her teeth" and "oh no, we need to go to the dentist stat!" After the initial shock of the whole thing, my brain processed what was going on. My little girl was losing her first tooth. And quickly. We haven't noticed a wobbly tooth and now suddenly here it is just barely hanging on. We asked her if she noticed anything. She said at lunch today it felt funny and she was afraid that she was getting a cavity. While I was still trying to calm my stomach, she was jumping up and down excitedly announcing that she has a "lost tooth". The rest of the night she would ask us every couple of minutes if it was still there. She was very concerned about losing it on the ground.

First I had to deal with going to kindergarten and now this. I really didn't expect this to happen this soon. I should have. Most of her friends have already lost a tooth. I don't know how much more growing up stuff I can take in a short time!

Oh and does anyone know what the going rate is on the Tooth Fairy these days? I'm guessing it isn't the quarter we got as kids.

Homework

On Fridays, Morgan brings home her homework folder and notebook. They are to turn the folder and notebook back in the following Friday. I've never seen someone so excited to do their homework. All during the camping trip she practiced her homework (we didn't want to bring the orginal notebook with us in case it got ruined outside). Yesterday, she filled out her notebook. Here was their assignment:

1. Write the letters of your child' s name on a separate piece ofpaper. Cut apart the letters and have your child glue their name backtogether in their homework notebook.

2. Have your child practice writing their name in their notebook 5 times.

3. Have your child draw 5 groups of 3 (three butterflies, three flowers, three cars, etc) in their homework notebook, and then practice writing the number three under each group.

4. Read a book to your child and have your child draw a picture of their favorite part in their homework notebook.

In addition to the homework sent out on Friday, students are expected to read 10 minutes daily with a experienced reader.

I can only hope she continues to love homework and the novelty of it does not wear out.

Rocky Mountain National Park

This weekend we went camping at Rocky Mountain National Park with two other families. Like usual, our campsite had several visitors.



On Saturday we hiked up to Alberta Falls with Tim, April, Keaghan, Aspen, Kaitlynn, and Gavin. Joann and Eddie didn't have the baby carrier for Logan, so they did their own thing.

On the hike, I was up ahead with the five kids. A lady asked me if the kids were all mine and when I said no she went "Whew!" That's good". I almost wanted to say: No, I meant these aren't all mine because it doesn't include the three more back at the campgrounds. People!

We made it to the top and kids spent lots of time exploring and climbing all over the rocks.





Afterwards, we hung out at the campsite.




What do you get when you put Joann in the camper with six kids? A crazy tumbling mess!


The next day we hiked around Bear Lake with Joann, Eddie and Logan. We took the time to dip our toes in the water.


And Morgan discovered that pushing a real baby around in a stroller was harder then pushing around a doll.

Morgan got her first Junior Ranger badge on this trip. She had a great time filling out the questions, animal facts and scavenger hunt items in her activity booklet. She also got another stamp in our National Park Passport book for a new total of three. Not bad for getting the book in July.

The Princess and the Pea

There once was a little princess who's skin was so sensitive, that she could feel a pea under 100 mattresses. With in seconds of putting on her royal robes, this little princess could also feel a shirt sleeve, the end of her shorts, a front button on her pants, a decorative button on a shirt, and a swim suit strap. These items would cause such distress to her delicate skin that she would writhe on the floor in severe agony, screaming uncontrollable at the top of her lungs.

And the king and the queen could only shake their heads in worry and dismay wondering how, besides letting the little princess roam around the kingdom naked, they could fix this terrible affliction.

Monday Report

Mark brought Morgan into school on Monday (we have been rotating schedules so that both of us can enjoy the different aspects of pick up and drop off). According to him Morgan had her shoes and backpack on 10 minutes before it was time to leave. She was very anxious and wanted to get to school on time. As they were walking, she saw the bus and wanted to hurry and get there before the bus did.

Outside line up went smoothly for Mark and Morgan, but did not go well for others. There were four or five kids crying and clinging - four or five that were not clinging on the first day. So those of you starting school, be warned: the kids might do great on the first day, but after the first weekend they hit a restart button.

I picked Morgan up after school and unfortunetely Mr. Mouse is still there. At least he was going something productive. He was sitting outside with a large group of kids reading a story to them. He did not say boo to me when I got Morgan.

Morgan's made a new friend. She's an 8th grader! At least we think she's an 8th grader. Morgan said that she's 15 years old. Morgan calls her Sissy. Morgan's also informed us she would now like a little sister but that's a whole other story. Anyways, Sissy plays with Morgan during the After Care program. She pushes her on the swings. She seems like a very nice young lady. Hmmm... maybe a future babysitter?

Today in school they had a tornado drill. Morgan was in the music room when this happened. She had to grab a book, put it over her head and get down on the floor. Again, she found this fun. That girl has a weird sense of fun.

Her highlight for the day: playing with Sissy and listening to the music instructor teach the class her name by singing it. Her lowlight for the day: losing her bracelet. After some questioning, we discovered that she didn't actually lose the bracelet but Ms D took it away because she was playing with it and it's safely located in her cubbie.

School Highlights Per Morgan

Despite all the drama with the After Care, Morgan's school ROCKS! She is adjusting well and is enjoying all the new things it has to offer. Here are some of the highlights according to Morgan:

1) Three recesses (with After Care she gets a third one)
2) Eating lunch in the cafeteria. The Kindergarten class eats first with the cafeteria all to themselves. Since they are slow to eat (still on toddler time), the lunch monitors prod them along by telling them the 1st graders are going to sit on them if they don't finish up. Morgan thinks this is hysterical.
3) Gym class. Morgan loved going to a special room where she got to hop forward on one foot and back on another.
4) Computer class. They played a game where a letter comes on the screen. They have to push that letter on the keyboard and it turns into a picture that starts with that letter. Pretty simple, but something that Morgan thinks is cool to do in a classroom.
5) Reading and Art. They read the Kissing Hand and then made a kissing hand art project. Morgan came home and made four more.
6) The school nurse. The classroom was brought to the nurse's office for a tour. Morgan thought it was the neatest thing that there was a real nurse right at the school.
7) Raising your hand until your called on. Now most kids might find this as a negative but Morgan liked the fact that you had to sit quietly, raise your hand, and get called on before you could talk. You would think that she did this in her Pre-K class, but apparently not to this extreme.
8) Walking to and from school. She's already asking if she walk by herself. I thought I had a few years before she started asking this!

By the end of the day, Morgan is exhausted and has been having huge meltdowns. So is Klayton. It's all par for the course of adjusting to this new, busy schedule and controlling her body/trying to behave so well during the day. By the morning, she up and at them - excited to do it all again.

Mamma Bear is Roaring

A week has gone by and Morgan is still loving her school. The drama has also subsided....

Aug 12th (the first day) 3:00 pm.
I get a call from Mark telling me to have a (insert explicit here) word with the guy who runs the After School program when I pick Morgan up. He just received a phone call from the Principal's office wondering when we were going to pick Morgan up (school's been out for a half hour now). She's sitting in the office since nobody came to get her. Mark explains that she was supposed to go to the After School program. Apparently, she was left behind.

3:15 pm
I leave work and head out to find said guy and have a chat with him. I ask Mickey (as in Mouse) what happened this afternoon. He has no idea what I'm talking about. Now, if a child is brought late to you, wouldn't you:

A. know about it
B. do everything in your power to find out what happened because you know some irate mother is about to come barrelling through your door?

He apparently did nothing. When I explained that my daughter was left behind and asked how that could happen, he rolled his eyes, gave a big sigh and said that he did everything he was supposed to do and it must be the teacher's fault. No apologizes, no promises to find out what happened, no guarantees that this wouldn't happen again. He even went so far as to say very rudely that my child wasn't the ONLY one this happened to today. Umm.... is that supposed to make me feel better? Because all it does is show you do not have your act together.

I asked him to explain to me how, we sign up with THEM for After Care, THEY have the list of kids so how is it the teachers get this list (since, according to him, it's Ms. D fault)? He had no clue.

After lots of eye rolling and heavy sighing from him, I came to the conclusion I was getting no where with him, so I told him I would talk to Ms. D and walked away. His response? To shout down the hall at me: Hey I'm not done talking to you! Oh yes we are Mr. Mouse.

I entered Ms. D's room and first asked how Morgan did. I got a great report back. Morgan was one of the children she used as an example of how to behave, as in look how nicely Morgan's sitting. Can you try and sit like that too? Ms. D didn't see any of the wonderful, gee I'm so proud behavior Morgan exhibited during the assessment. Whew!

Then I asked her what happened this afternoon. She immediately knew what I was talking about and apologized profusely. It was an honest mistake. Some miscommunication. She told me it's been resolved and she would make sure it would never happen again. When I filled out a form stating how Morgan would be getting home from school, I wrote in Walk. She took that to mean that Morgan would be walking right after school - not going to the After Care. I should have wrote in the After Care.

I go to pick Morgan up. Mr. Mouse does not talk to me or look at me. Instead a very polite and young man from the program approaches me on his own and asks if I'm alright. I tell him no, but I know what I'm going to do. He apologizes for what my daughter went through and assures me that he will personally be responsible for making sure she is picked up this week. Nice that a 20-something regular staff member is more professional then a 40-something director.

I can understand an honest mistake. What I can't forgive is Mr. Mouse's rude, indifferent behavior and his complete lack of ownership for what happened. I am now on a mission.

Aug 13th 9:00 am.
I call Mr. Mouse's district manager. (This is the second time I have spoken to her. We had a minor incident during enrollment.) I explain what happened and she is appalled. She has a child that entered Kindergarten last year and she states that she would be livid if this happened to her kid. She promises me that the program has higher standards then this. There is check and balances that are supposed to happen (both the teacher and the director should have attendance lists and compare them to each other). She is in shock over how I was treated. I tell her about the nice young man. He has been with her for three years. Mr. Mouse is a new hire. She says that it sounds like she hired the wrong person. I agree. She tells me that she will pay Mr. Mouse a visit.

Aug 13th 10:00 am.
I call the Principal to inform her that I filed a formal complaint against Mr. Mouse with his district manager. I just wanted her to be aware of what was going on. She was appreciative that I was keeping her in the loop.

Aug 14th 4:00 pm.
Mark goes to pick Morgan up from After Care. Mr. Mouse is not there. Previously, there wasn't a formal check out process - another issue I reported to the district manager. This time, Mark is stopped at the doors and asked to sign Morgan out. We have progress!

I don't know if Mr. Mouse is gone for good or what. I guess we will find out tonight.