Life in a whirlwind

We Are the Change

2010-08-26T09:00:00.002-06:00

Yippee!

We received an e-mail from the principal informing us that the school received extra funding and will be hiring a Kindergarten, 1st grade and 3rd grade teacher. I guess we squeaked loud enough. 34 kids spread out among 3 class rooms will make for a much, much better learning environment.

Right after getting the e-mail, I made sure that Morgan would be staying in Ms. A's classroom. And yep, sure enough. Ms. A is going to make sure she stays and receives the stability that she needs.

It's all coming together. Whew!!

34

2010-08-24T07:35:00.001-06:00

Last week Morgan brought home her place mat from school. I was surprised that she had this and asked her if she was supposed to bring it home. Yes, she replied, there isn't enough room for it. Not enough room? When we were there for Back to School Night they all fit fine. What do you mean there's not enough room? Well come to find out, they added even more kids to the classroom (for a grand total of 34) and now they don't all fit around the tables any more. You got to be kidding me!! Here we go again!

A bunch of us have called around and found out that we are the only district with such overcrowded classrooms this year. Our numbers are 50% more then any other districts. Other charter or special admission schools in our districts are not as overcrowded either. Several of us parents have been writing letters to the superintendent. Once our questions became direct, he stopped corresponding with us. I'm not sure what our next course of action will be, but these numbers are simply not acceptable.

Morgan brought home her worksheets that she completed in the classroom. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say waiting for 34 kids to finish their assignments is not productive! What do you think?

Here is the front of her sheets:

And here is the backside:

Nah, she doesn't have too much time on her hands between activities.

Colorado Campground

2010-08-19T07:16:00.006-06:00

This past weekend we went camping at Colorado Campground outside of Woodland Park.

At the end of the campground is a path to a lake.

We discovered lots of creatures like crayfish, minnows and ducks.

Since we were going to a lake, Morgan wanted to bring her net to try and catch frogs. There were no frogs, but she entertained herself for hours catching minnows.

It wasn't enough for her to catch them all day long, we went back the second day and she spent another hour catching and releasing her small fish friends.

We also did some geocaching. The first cache took us on a mile adventure through tall grass, across a stream and under barbed wired fences to the middle of nowhere.

Figuring that one crazy adventure was enough, we decided to drive to the rest of the geocaches, which lead to some fun four-wheel driving.

There is only one more camping trip to do this summer. I can't believe the season is almost over.

I Heart Ms. A

2010-08-12T11:12:00.002-06:00

I can not stress enough how much I love, love, love Morgan's teacher this year. Here are just a couple of reasons:

Morgan's class has lunch (more like brunch) at 10:40 am, then they get their 15 minute recess. They are literally sitting in that classroom from 11:14 until 2:30. Ms. A did not like this so she went to the principal and begged her to add an afternoon recess for the 1st graders. And she got it!

After a couple of days at school, I approached Ms. A regarding Morgan's 504 for her SPD. Ms. A had not had a chance to read it yet, but was really surprised to hear that Morgan had special needs. She told me that if I wouldn't have let her know, she would never have guessed because she's doing so well in the classroom. And Ms. A knows all about SPD because her son has the same thing. Morgan is with a teacher that totally gets it. Such a relief!

We had a follow up conversation a couple days later to see how things were progressing. We've been noticing that her SPD behavior (especially her oral need to suck on things) has been more prevalent since school started. I think the stress to sit still and listen so intensely in such a huge class has been getting to her a bit. Ms. A told us that she's really proud of how well Morgan has been able to self-regulate her needs, that even in 1st grade Morgan seems to have a handle on her issues. Then she told us that was a testimony to how well we have been parenting to her special needs, which of course made me feel even more wonderful.

Yesterday, another student noticed Morgan chewing gum in the classroom and tattled on her. Instead of just brushing it aside, Ms. A sat the child down with Morgan present and explained to the other child why Morgan got to chew gum. She's teaching the kids that everyone is different and some of them might have special needs - it's not something to be embarrassed about or hidden. You could tell it really made Morgan feel good to have this sort of conversation.

Oh yes. I heart Ms. A!

Jackson Lake State Park

2010-08-11T06:25:00.005-06:00

This weekend we camped at Jackson Lake State Park and the one word I can use to describe it is: HOT! It was so hot that even the water was too warm. It was so hot that we spent most of the afternoon hanging out in the shade thinking about how hot it was. It was just so hot!

We spent the weekend swimming, fishing, geocaching and just hanging out.

In the evening we roasted the most ginormous marshmallows that I have ever seen courtesy of my parents. These things are HUGE.

They make a regular sized marshmallow look like it has the punes.

They take up two full-sized graham crackers and still oozy out the sides.

Even the kids said that they were too much. After eating one, you felt like you could run around the whole lake.

The main highlight of the trip was the night time vistors that swarmed the area - tons and tons of toads ranging in size from giant parents to tiny little babies. The kids loved trying to catch them all. Roan was definetely the king toad catcher, sometimes having up to three of them in his hands.

While a little more timid then Roan, Morgan still held her own - literally.

Our 1st Grader

2010-08-04T18:23:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was Morgan's first day of 1st grade. I can't believe how much she's changed in one year. She no looks so much older then she did when she headed off to kindergarten.

First Day of 1st Grade:

1st day of Kindergarten:

As a matter of fact, all three of them look more grown-up.

There were a few changes this year. We got a cross-guard for our street (yeah!) and her class lines up in the back of the school were the playground is. Morgan was pretty excited to get to play before class, until she saw all the older kids and how packed the playground was. There are a whooping 32 kids in her class and the teacher doesn't have an aide (boo!). It is a district mandate that 1st graders have a half hour of homework every night, but her teacher told us that if our kids can't handle homework after 8 hours in class then don't worry about it. Just read to the kids for 10 minutes a day and that will help them more then the worksheets. Her teacher announced that she has a zero tolerance policy for name calling, bulling or physical contact. She also explained that everyone in the classroom is considered a big extended family and she instills the principal that we look after our family. This should be a big chance compared to last years every-kid-for-themselves-go-ahead-and-duke-it-out-just-get-over-the-fact-that-your-kids-being-picked-on policy. Can I say that I already love her teacher.

I picked Morgan up from the neighbors and asked her how her day was. She told me she was too tired to talk about it. She told me it was the same things they did in Kindergarten, no surprises and nothing new. At 6 pm last night, Morgan was asking to go to bed. By 6:45 she was in bed and by the time I checked in on her at 7:30 she was sound asleep. It's exhausting being a 1st grader!

Water World

2010-08-03T09:29:00.006-06:00

This weekend we spent the day at Water World and I would have to say that Morgan has conquered her fears regarding water. This girl was raring to go on the slides, doing most of them without any hesitation (at 43" tall, she wasn't tall enough to do a lot of the rides. The cut off was 48") This made the day a bit more fun for Mark and I as well as we could spend more time away from the kiddie pools. Mark and I even took turns riding The Lines, a six story straight plunge.

Morgan's biggest conquer was the TurboRacer: an eight-track water slide that shoots patrons at up to 22 mph on 410 feet of track. At 61 feet tall, the ride is touted by Water World as the tallest of its kind in the world. Riders lay on their bellies on a blue foam mat and slide through a tube and sharp turns. Click on the link above to see what it looks like since I can't find an actual picture of the slide.

When we got to the top, she panicked a little bit. You start by shooting into a covered looping slide and this, along with going head first scared her. She decided she didn't want to ride it, so I went down by myself (8 people can go at a time) while Mark stayed with her. I have to admit, this ride scared me more then The Line did because it felt a lot faster and your going around sharp curves. When I got to the bottom I was kind of glad she wasn't going on it because I thought it would be too much for her. I went back to the stairs and waited for them to come down. And waited and waited. They never came down the stairs because she had actually gone down the slide. She did it even though she was scared and she wanted to do it again! So I had to be brave and we did it again.

We stayed at the park until 45 minutes before it closed. We would have stayed longer, but a storm was coming in and the temperatures had drastically dropped.

All of these water adventures have drastically increased her swimming ability. I think 80% of her swimming issues were mental, and now that she's so comfortable in the water, she's really excelling. At swim on Tuesday, we were told she's ready for her swimming test. Wearing her street clothes, she must swim across the pool and be able to float for five seconds. If she passes she moves on to the next class. Needless to say, she's pretty excited and pretty proud.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2010-07-26T19:50:00.004-06:00

This past weekend we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park for our camping trip. On Friday evening, after dinner we all attended the "Calling All Rangers" program at the auditorium. It was supposed to be for kids, but the first half of it was some pretty intense history. We did learn that National Parks are not protected forever. At any time, the people can vote to have a park removed. This was a pretty sad and disconcerning fact. The second half of the program was much more kid friendly. They had kids from the audience dress up in different ranger outfits and we had to guess what kind of job they did. Keaghan got choosen and she was an educational ranger. After the program, all the kids had the Ranger sign their Jr Ranger books.
The next morning we woke up to these views.

The bare mountain in this picture is considered the JFK mountain. Do you see it?

How about in this one? See his profile, and a little ways down his hand over his heart?

On Saturday, we went hiking on the Cub Lake trail. I use that term loosely as we probably didn't even go half a mile. Instead, the kids enjoyed scrambling up some rocks and playing forever in a river. Of course I forgot my camera again so just use your imagination.

After our mini-hike, we took it easy and hung around the campsite the rest of the day. The kids enjoyed putting on their own performances at the auditorium.

The next morning we packed up while the kids used the top of the camper as another one of their stages.

And then headed to the Visitor's Center where the kids sat down with a ranger to discuss their visit, turned in their books, got their Jr. Ranger badges.

On our way out, we stopped for a little while at the small amusement park outside RMNP. The slide was only $1 to go down, so Morgan went a few times.

The bumper boats were a rip off. We paid $6 and I think they were on it for only two minutes at the most.

We stopped two times on the way home to do some geocaching. Managed to find both of the caches we were looking for. We are starting to get better at this thing. It's very addictive and Morgan is always asking us when we can find more treasure. Good thing there are tons hidden right in our own backyard.

Getting Ready for School

2010-07-23T07:50:00.002-06:00

Yes, you read that title right. While some of you are just getting out for summer, we go back to school August 4, in less then two weeks. Crazy eh?? Especially since there are still so many summer things we want to do. I guess we'll have to fit them in on the weekends.

Yesterday was registration day. We were very happy to find out that Morgan did receive the teacher we wanted: Ms. A. Ms A is known for her lovingly strict classroom. She also has two kiddos with special needs at home, making her a great match for Morgan. We found out that her friends Klayton, Roan and Kathy will all be in her classroom as well. We don't know about any of the other kids yet.

Now I need to go out and buy all her school supplies. I thought I had plenty of time, but it looks like I'm falling behind. Afterall, there is only a week and a half left.

County Fair Time

2010-07-22T15:54:00.003-06:00

I haven't been updated in awhile because my parents have been in town and we've been busy visiting. I hope to download some pictures soon and catch up our happenings.

Last night we went to the County Fair. The older I get, the scary the fair gets. It's the same rides year after year and I must admit, they are starting to look pretty run-down and I worry about their safety. Morgan, of course, doesn't notice and has a great time each year. This year she was tall enough to ride a couple of new ones. Her favorite was the scrambler which she rode with her hands up in the air. She claims to "love the pressure it puts on my body" so I think it's actually therapeutic for her Sensory Processing Disorder. Too bad we can't put one of those in our backyard!

She made a friend while riding the motorcycles and they were inseparable from then on out, holding hands and running from ride to ride together. It's amazing how easy it is for kids to make friends. They rode for about an hour or so together before it was time to leave.

Once again, we didn't see any of the animals or any of the other exhibits, it's always right to the fairway where we stay the whole time. We did get to watch a magician while we were eating dinner. Morgan really enjoyed him and was clapping and laughing out loud - not something she normal does while watching a performance.

She's already talking about going back next year. I just hope that they have some updated (or even fixed/cleaned up) rides.

Swim Party and Conquering Fears

2010-07-11T15:22:00.006-06:00

We had Morgan's birthday party this Saturday at a local indoor pool. We had never been to this pool before, but Morgan wanted a place that had a slide she could go down (this one has a small splash park including a slide - which of course I didn't get picture of!) and I wanted a place indoors so I wouldn't have to worry about the weather. We scheduled the party from 4:30 - 6:30 which worked out perfect. I didn't realize they didn't have a private party room and that our tables would just be in open area, but since our party was later in the day, we had the place to ourselves by food and present time.

Every year Morgan picks a cake that isn't flat and every year it is an absolute disaster to cut. I guess it doesn't matter how it looks on the plate, only how it tastes in the belly.

The theme for the day was bravery. Morgan was so brave and tried two new things. First, she wanted to go on the slide in the deep end. This slide dumps you out a good four feet above the water. You can sort of tell how high up it is in the picture below, behind Laura's (in the white shirt) head. And did I mention it's in the deep end? And that Morgan's still not the best swimmer?

Well, we went with her over to slide and sat on the edge so we could rescue her if the need be while Eddie jumped into the water and tread water, waiting for her at the bottom. She climbed to the top and then sat there, and sat there, and sat there. Finally, she climbed back down the steps all shaken and upset. She agreed to try again if I stood at the bottom of the stairs near her. And this time, with a slight hesitation, she did it! And then she did it again, and again and again with us all just standing on the side. The funny thing is, that she never came up for a breathe after she went in. She would go down and immediately start swimming to the side. I later told her it would be easier if she came up, took a breath and then started to swim, but she informed me that she preferred it the other way.

After conquering the deep end slide, she really wanted to do the big slide. Technically, she was not tall enough to go down, but since her taller friends were doing it, we thought we'd see if they would let her anyways. After all, this slide ended in the shallow water, and if she could handle the other one, surely she could handle this one.

So she headed up there, made it passed the lifeguard, and we waited and waited and waited for her to come down. Finally, she climbed back down the steps all shaken and upset (sound familiar?). I offered to go up with her.

On the way up she told me her concerns. In one spot the sides were lower - would she fall out? Of course not. They would never, ever make it so a kid could fall out, they have to make it safe. The water at the top was really hard and it freaked her out. It's only hard at the top because it has to push all the way down the slide. Once you get going, it's fine.

When it got to be her turn, she asked the lifeguard to give her a little push. And down she went...

...again and again and again.

Celebrating her 6th Birthday

2010-07-08T14:46:00.001-06:00

For Morgan's birthday, we first opened presents at home. She received the electronic game version of Guess Who?, unicorn Webkins, Magic Fabric Kit, Geomate Jr (a simple geocaching device for kids), a pair of binoculars (which were actually my five year service reward from my company but she was still thrilled to have her own pair) and we finally broke down and got her a Nintendo DS.

Then we went over to her friend's Roan's house for pizza and cupcakes (which Roan made especially for her). Roan was not going to be able to make Morgan's party, but still wanted to her help her celebrate. The two had a great time playing outside despite the rain. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share, as it's becoming more and more common for me to forget my camera behind.

Morgan's present from Roan was a Cheetah Pillow Pet, something she's wanted for a long time.

The next morning, Morgan told me "Mom. I still love my pillow pet, but it isn't a cheetah." Taken aback, I asked her why she would think that. She proceeded to explain to me that cheetah's have solid black spots while jaguars have the black circles with the dark brown on the inside, unless of course it's a black jaguar because there are two different types, and since her pillow pet does not have solid black spots he is a jaguar. I had to Google cheetah spots just to make sure she was correct. And of course she was!

In the Blink of an Eye

2010-07-07T13:12:00.002-06:00

Blink

Happy 6th Birthday!

I am amazed at what a compassionate person you are becoming. The care that you exhibit to others is beyond your years. Your sense of humor and bubbly personality make me laugh and smile every day. You are so smart and aren't afraid to question things, many times proving that you know more about a subject then we do. I can't wait to see the ways in you will grow and develop in the coming year. I have no doubt you will continue to amaze me.

We love you buggaboo!

Zoo Camp - Twisted Tales

2010-07-06T08:56:00.000-06:00

Last week Morgan attended the zoo camp. The theme for the week was Twisted Tales: We all know classic fairy tales that feature creatures but would the tale be the same from the animal's point of view?

All the campers had to wear the official Animal Tales T-shirt each day at the zoo.

They did so many things and learned so many neat things about animals. On Monday, they read "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and learned about all things wolf. They played a really neat game called Find Your Pack! where each kid had a scented bottle and they had to find the rest of their pack by finding other kids with their matching scent. They also had a service dog as their animal visitor. Morgan was excited to share the fact that wolves smell better then cats, but cats hear better then wolves.

On Tuesday, they read "The Three Snow Bears", an adaption of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". They played Hibernation Food Hunt. When the lights were off, they had to sleep on their mats, when the lights were on, they had to find food super quick. I asked her if they had any animal visitors and she looked at me like I had three heads.

No mom, we learned about bears today.

Well yesterday you learned about wolves but you still had a visitor.

Yes, well there isn't an animal related to a bear that would be safe to bring into the classroom.

Alrighty then.

Wednesday was all about Turtles, Tortoises and other reptiles. They visited Tropical Discovery, had turtle dress-up time, learned about all the turtles of the world, played Pin the Tongue on the Frog and made tissue paper turtles.

They also had a box turtle visit the classroom. Morgan's fun fact to share for the day was that the turtle's shell grows with the turtle.

Thursday's theme was fast and slow animals. They created their own storybook called The Sloth and the Jaguar, a new take on The Tortoise and the Hare.

They also had a Sloth vs Jaguar Race, played Fast and Slow Simon Says and had a Tortoise and Hare Relay Race. The highlight of the day for her was a visit to the cheetah's exhibit, her favorite animal. She was still talking about the cheetah this weekend. I was informed that cheetahs are the only cat's who's claws don't retract? They stay out all the time so they can run fast through the long African grass. Looks like Morgan isn't the only one learning something new from the zoo camp.

Friday was the final day and Morgan was quite sad that it was over. The theme for the day was primates. They learned about African versus Asian primates, played move like a primate, had a gorilla grooming game, visited the primates and toured the Lorikeets (which had nothing to do with primates, but Morgan enjoyed non the less). At the end of the camp day, the families were invited to the Wildlife Show. Due to bad weather it was held inside. The kids sat up front with their groups while the parents hung out in the back of the room. They had a macaw and a red wing hawk, but the star of the show was the African Serval. We were too far back to get a picture, but here is what this cat looks like. He was kept on a leash and demonstrated how well he can leap 10 feet high into the air. It was amazing.

At the end of the show, each class performed a song. Morgan's room did Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

This by far was Morgan's favorite camp. Morgan has decided to she wants to be a zookeeper when she grows up. She wants to go to this camp EVERY WEEK next year, and for fall break, and for Christmas break and for any classes they have on Saturdays. While she won't be going every week next summer (there are only two different classes offered over the summer weeks, plus this camp is expensive) we want to encourage her love for animals and will be signing her up for other offerings through out the year.

Toothless Wonder

2010-07-02T09:02:00.000-06:00

Notice anything different about Morgan's smile?

She lost her bottom left tooth today.

Now if only a few of them would start to grow back in. Thank goodness her bottom two have or else we might have needed to get her some denture because she wouldn't have been able to chew any food!

How to Get a Fairy to Visit

2010-06-30T09:04:00.000-06:00

Step 1 - Paint mushrooms

Step 2 - Place finished mushrooms into a fairy ring.

Step 3 - Add pinecones and evergreen branches for added decoration and fairy comfort.

Step 4 - Wait overnight for the fairy to visit.

Step 5 - You will know the fairy paid you a visit if there is a suprise waiting for you in the fairy mushroom ring.

Dragonfly Trail at Mueller Park

2010-06-29T09:23:00.001-06:00

Before leaving on Sunday, the three of us decided to take a short walk on the family-friendly Dragonfly Trail. At first Morgan was protesting that she didn't want to go on a long hike again, but when we showed her how short the trail actually was (a small loop around a small pond) she was game.

The loop has lots of interactive signs and activities for the kids to participate in. Morgan was able to read some of the signs out loud to us so she was pretty proud of that. We were also impressed with how much knowledge she has of the great outdoors.

Below she is seeing how far she can jump compared to other animals.

And one of her favorite activities - matching scat to the correct animals. She's a real pro at this.

Looking to see what kind of insects can be found in dead trees. She thought it was neat to learn that ants are like candy to bears.

We saw lots and lots of the trail's namesake.

We were extremely fortunate to see another one of the ponds local residence. The pond is a breeding ground for the Tiger Salamander. While walking across one of the boardwalks, a larva swam right up to us and seemed to stare at us for awhile before swimming back under the boards. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen. It looked so magical with its barrs flaring out around it's head, almost like a wise dragon. I was not able to capture it on film, but the following picture gives you an idea of what it looked like.

After completing the loop the first time, Morgan wanted to go around and do it again. Unfortunately we had to pack up and check out of our campsite.

Mueller State Park

2010-06-28T21:13:00.007-06:00

This weekend we camped at Mueller State Park. We had never been here before, but it quickly turned into one of our favorite places. True forest camping in Colorado is pretty rare, usually campsites are fairly open. At Mueller State Park you were definitely camping in the forest. There were no vast open areas and which is a nice change. There are lots and lots of hiking trails varying in length from kid-friendly to challenging. We took a medium hike (almost three miles round trip) on Cahill Pond Trail.

After hiking for a little while, we came across an old log house to explore (from the outside only of course).

Along the trail, the kids were able to discover many, many signs of the animals that live here. They identified coyote, deer, owl and even bear scat. We came across a bone yard left behind from some animal's dinner.

Along the way, we could see how the elk and deer were eating and rubbing on the aspen. Every tree in the area had the tell-tale black markings on the bottom of their trunks.

At the half way point, we made it to the pond were a family of ducks had made their own. We also found some big, scary looking bear tracks left behind in the mud along the edge.

On the loop back, the kids started to get a little tuckered out, but they held their own. Apparently it helps when you have a giant walking stick to help you along.

Back at the campsites, we discovered a lean-to for the kids to explore. Don't worry, the outside looks a lot more unstable then it really is on the inside.

The kids had fun finding new branches to add to the existing pile as well as adding their own decorating touches such as a "chandelier" and a "popcorn-maker".

Yes, we definitely want to come back here some day.

Library Summer Reading Program

2010-06-23T21:03:00.004-06:00

Last year the library summer reading program wasn't so much a summer program as a quick get-these-reading-list-items-checked-off-within-a-week-or-two. This year, the program consists of reading a book each week for eight weeks, much better in the fact that it was, well, over the summer. At week four the kids are supposed to come in and get a mid-term price. Morgan was so excited to complete her four weeks. She read her fourth book on a Sunday (when she had until Saturday to read it) and wanted to get to the library on Monday. The librarian checked her sheet, congratulated her and handed her a plastic bag. As we walked away Morgan asked what was in the bag. We peeked in to find... nothing. Morgan asked if the bag was supposed to be her prize. I told her that apparently it was. Morgan replied, well that isn't a very good price. Yes honey, I would have to agree with you there! Thank goodness it didn't crush her enthusiasm for the program too much. She's thinking that the final prize will be something better. I don't think it would take much to top a cheap plastic bag!

State Forest State Park

2010-06-21T19:37:00.009-06:00

Over Father's Day weekend, we went on a camping trip at State Forest State Park (and yes, that is it's real name. Almost sounds like they ran out names!) with Morgan's school friend and his family. The park is huge and has several campgrounds. Ours was on a beautiful lake.

While the parents set up, the kids kept themselves occupied by playing games in the camper.

State Forest State Park is known for his large population of moose. On Saturday, a visit to the visitor's center had all things moose, including this statue made out of barb-wire.

Morgan demonstrated how the large moose ears help her hear better.

Then we headed down to the lake to take Morgan fishing for the first time.

While the dogs watched patiently.

Morgan practiced casting out her line for awhile without any bait on it. She got the hang of it after a few tries.

And then it was time for the worm.

"What's that red stuff"
"Blood"
"Why is he bleeding?"
"Well, because we are putting a hook through him"
"Why is he squirming around like that?"
"Well, because we are putting a hook through him"
"Eeeww..."

But then she quickly got over it and fished for a very, very long time.

Until the kids decided that surfing on an old log would be more fun.

On the way back from the lake, she also took some time to stop in the field and look for four-leaf covers.

Next, it was on to some 4-wheel driving.

The view from the top was incredible, despite the pine beetle damage. Unfortunately, we did not spot any moose.

And speaking of pine beetle damage, the rules used to be that you were not allowed to collect firewood in any park. Now, they have huge piles of cut down trees scattered through out the campsites that they want you to gather wood from. The kids kept very busy collecting this wood and building their own woodpile by our fire.

And then we got to relax and enjoy the beautiful sunset.

The next day, we headed back to town. Seeing as my camera was packed away in the camper, I just knew that we would see moose on the way out. And we did! Two times we spotted moose eating in the marshes below the road. It was quite the sight.

Imagination Station

2010-06-10T09:49:00.002-06:00

The theme this week at camp is Imagination Station.

On Monday, they created masks. Morgan made a leopard one. Then they played Night at the Museum in the gym and Man from Mars. After lunch they had a cartoon contest, played pictionary and charades.

Tuesday was reservior day. Morgan didn't want to wear her swimsuit under her clothes. Because of her Sensory Processing Disorder, the tightness of the suit under her clothes stresses her out so I didn't push the issue and let her pack her suit to change into later. Apparently, she didn't want to change into her suit at all. Instead of swimming, she stayed in her regular clothes and played with the sand toys on the beach. I was a little surprised about this because she normally loves to swim. I think the water snake from last week might have her a little apprehensive about getting into the water.

On Wednesday the kids played Rhythm Magic in the gym. Then they headed out to Wash Park to play and have some lunch. After lunch, they went to Swallow Hill, a music school, were they listened to a custom concert just for them. After the concert, the kids were able to try out the different musical instruments but Morgan did not participate in this. She was more content to watch the other kids try out the instruments.

Today the campers are headed to Celestial Seasonings for a tour of their tea factory. Morgan is excited to try some of the tea samples. She has never tasted tea before so it should be interesting to see what she thinks about them.

Friday they will be making clay creations, playing memory in the gym, creating a camp mural and having a talent show.

Next week Morgan will be going to her gymnastics camp. She said that she is ready to go to that camp because she's "getting bored of this one". Wow. I'm not sure how she could be bored since they have done more in a few weeks then I've done for a whole summer when I was a kid! Good thing she's not staying home me with me all day, or else she would really, really be bored!

Climbing Wall

2010-06-07T19:26:00.003-06:00

Who needs fancy, expensive indoor play equipment, when a blow-up mattress makes a great climbing wall and slide all in one?

This has entertained her for hours and hours!

Wild, Wild Rockies

2010-06-04T10:43:00.003-06:00

The theme for camp this week was Wild, Wild Rockies.

Tuesday was swimming at the reservoir. Thinking it was Monday since the holiday weekend mixed up my timing I dressed Morgan in regular clothes (campers are supposed to wear their swimsuits under their clothes on reservoir days). Once I realized it was actually Tuesday, I was not about to change Morgan's clothes again. SPD makes it very difficult for her to put on a clothes, let alone a swimsuit. I figured she could wear her regular clothes and change at the reservoir. She had no problems changing in to her suit at camp, but it turns out she could have just kept her regular clothes on. There was a water snake spotted at the swim beach, so nobody went into the water. Instead, they played on the playground and hiked around again.

Wednesday the kids went on a tour of Coors Field. The highlight of the tour for Morgan was going into the dugout. They were suppose to see Dinger, the mascot, but he was making an appearance at Children's Hospital that day. Although disappointed not to meet him, Morgan was excited to share the reason why the Rockies have a dinosaur as a mascot - because a dinosaur bone was found while they were building the stadium.

Thursday was a hiking trip up to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. I was surprised to see this on their schedule since it's pretty far away. Apparently, the councillers didn't realize just how far away it really was. The bus got lost on the way up, Morgan was car sick (which she never, ever has gotten before) and was clutching a garbage can on the drive. By the time they got there, they had time for lunch and that was it. They ate and had to get right back on the bus.

Needless to say, this wasn't the best week!

Today they will be staying at the school and making construcation paper mountain scenes, playing Pac Man in the gym, shadow tag outside, Eagle Ball, making rock Ladybugs, and playing Jump the Canyon back in the gym. I think Morgan was looking forward to an uneventful day.

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

2010-05-31T10:29:00.000-06:00

We took our first camping trip of the season this weekend outside of Canon City. On Saturday, we had a fun-filled day at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park.

The first thing we did was ride the Incline Railway to the bottom of the gorge. The line was very short for this in the morning. When we walked by it later in the day, there was at least an hour wait. We were very glad we did this when we did.

The ride to the bottom is very step.

When we got back up, we walked across the bridge to the other side of the park. The bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge. The walkway is made of 1,270 planks of deck; about 250 are replaced annually. The planks have large gaps in them and you can feel the bridge sway as you walk across. Cars are allowed to drive across, adding to the movement of the bridge.

The bridge was a perfect place to try out the panorama feature of my new camera. I had lots of fun experimenting with this setting.

On the other side of the bridge, has the Mountainman Encampment featuring many old west attractions, including a horsedrawn wagon ride, burro rides, panning for gold, ax throwing and re-inactments of gun fights.

To get back to the other side of the park, we took the Aerial Tram. Gliding more than 1,100 feet above the canyon floor it is the world's longest single-span Aerial Tram.

Within the park we also rode a trolley, a carousel and the Silver Rock Railway. It was one full day.

When we got back to the campsite, the kids wanted to keep going so we played some miniature golf. Then we had dinner, smores and they kiddos fell asleep.

The next day was a quieter day around the campsite. The kids are now at the age where they can basically entertain themselves. They played games in the camper, explored the woods behind our campsite, climbed on the playground, swam in the swimming pool and played with some of the outdoor toys. Mark and I were really wishing we had brought our books cause for the first time ever, we had a lot of down time on our hands.

By the end of the trip the four kiddos were wiped out. It didn't take much for the four of them to crash.

The Not So Lazy Days of Summer

2010-05-26T07:14:00.003-06:00

Morgan started summer day camp with the YMCA this week. The camp meets at her school just like their after-care program did. There are new directors running the summer program: Stephanie and Rich. I can already tell the program is tons better then the after-care. Instead of being a holding area for kids, they have lots and lots of activities planned. This week's theme is Food Fight and here is the schedule:

Monday - Introduction to camp, morning snack, create an art project entitled: A Tangled Web, play the Name Game in the gym, play SPUD in the gym, have lunch, make homemade ice cream, create another art project with Jello Sand painting, gym game super market lot, afternoon snack, discuss highs and lows of the day and create Camper Grams.

Tues - Day at the Reservoir. Lifeguards are not on duty yet so no swimming this week. Instead they played sand volleyball, went on the trails, played on the playground, and they had nets to capture and release water wildlife (among the items captured were crabs and shrimp). At 2:30 they headed back to school for afternoon snack, highs and lows of the day and Camper Grams.

Wed - Go to Old Chicago's to take a tour of the restaurant and make their own personal pizzas, head to the park for lunch, kickball and playing on the playground, head back to school for afternoon snack, highs and lows and Camper Grams.

Thurs - Go to Casa Bonita. For those of you not familiar with Denver or haven't seen the South Park episodes, Casa Bonita is an Mexican-themed restaurant labeled "The World's Most Exciting Restaurant". The multi-story complex includes a 30-foot-tall waterfall complete with cliff divers, their are magicians, fire jugglers, strolling mariachi bands roaming the tables, a pirate cave to explore and video games to play. As for the food, well, let's just say you don't go there for the food.

Friday: Small groups, create candy necklaces, play steal the bacon, make camp banner, have lunch, talk about your neighbors/neighborhood, create a jelly bean picture, play a gym game called Guess a Veggie, have an afternoon snack, go over highs and lows of the day and Camper Grams.

And that is just the first week!

She will be going to the YMCA for a few weeks, the zoo camp for one week and gymnastic camp for the rest of summer. I think she's going to be doing more this summer then she has in her five years combined!

Field Day

2010-05-20T20:58:00.001-06:00

Field Day was a great sucess. There were about 13 stations that each class rotated through. All the events required teamwork and lots of physical effort. There was a race to fill up a large bucket using a snall bucket with holes in the bottom...

...races...

...filling up a bucket using wet sponges...

...volleyball using a beach ball...

...tug of war...

...flag tag where you have to rip the flags off your opponents waist...

...wheelbarrow races...

...and more.

Morgan really bonded with her partner, Gerrion. Good grief!

And now, summer official begins. It isn't going to last long though. Since school ends so early for us, it also begins early. August 4th they go back. It's going to fly by.

Continuation Ceremony

2010-05-19T17:15:00.004-06:00

Wow. That was short. How is it we are here already...

...when just yesterday (I swear it was just yesterday, wasn't it??) we were here:

After the ceremony, we headed inside for snacks and to clean out the kids things. This wasn't the best kindergarten year. There were lots of ups and downs, but we made it through.

Klayton, Roan and Morgan are still buds. They will be going to summer camp together for a few weeks and will be camping with Roan's family.

Look at that smile. Can you tell that she's smitten with her "boyfriend" Peyton? His mom and I keep in touch so they will be getting together over the summer.

And here is her frienemy, Ashley. One day they are BFF, the next day they can't stand each other. Ah, the joys of girls!

Today is Field Day, their very last day of school. Mark is with her today. When he brings her home, she will no longer be a kindergartner. Summer vacation will begin.

Date Night

2010-05-18T10:58:00.003-06:00

Mark and I had a date on Friday night. We spent the evening hanging out and laughing with Tom Green at our local comedy club. He's still hilarious. And tall. I didn't realize how tall he was until I saw how much he looms over me in this picture. Kind of looks like a psycho-killer or something doesn't he?

Herding Cats

2010-05-12T09:27:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I chaperoned my first kindergarten field trip and let me tell you, it was quite an experience. The field trip was at the aquarium. We arrived at 9:30 am but the kids were not allowed in the aquarium until 11 am. Keeping track of five kids in a controlled environment is one thing, but trying to keep control of them in an outdoor, open area was a huge challenge. There was a bouncy castle to play in and an outdoor play area. We had to make sure they ate lunch during this time as well as rode the 4D Sponge Bob movie/ride. I had an extra challenge, as I was in charge of a child with extreme special needs that needed a lot, a lot of extra attention. Not sure why the teacher did not have him (she did not take any kids) as it was not fair on me, the other kids in my group nor this boy, who obviously needed more direct supervision. While the other kids would stop and look for their group if they wandered too far away, this child did not. He was in his own world, constantly roaming far ahead of the group. Every five minutes or so, I would have to run ahead and reign him back. He did not respond to his name being called. If I tried to hold his hand, he would grunt and growl at me. Two times I found him with his stomach across the glass, feet up in the air and arms fully submerged in the tanks. The rest of the kids in my group became my little helpers, noticing when he strayed too far and walking him back to us. On top of this, it was a cold rainy day so I was carrying five winter jackets and two umbrellas. Needless to say, it was very stressful. It helps to know that this will be the hardest field trip to chaperon - it can only get easier from here as the kids get older and more responsible. And I would hope that the next grade level teachers would be more considerate regarding this child. If not, I now know enough to respectfully decline having this child in my group and suggest that teacher gives him some one on one attention.

The Last of Kindergarten

2010-05-03T14:45:00.003-06:00

I can't believe the last few weeks of school are upon us. In less then 20 days Morgan will no longer be a kindie. Crazy. And apparently in the last few weeks of school, we as parents aren't supposed to be working much: one day I'll be taking off for a class field trip, one day Mark will be taking off for a teacher-workday, then we have to come during the middle of the day for a continuation ceremony, another day is mostly field day where parents are also encouraged to participate. So in the next three weeks, we'll need to take off five days! Yicks!

We are crossing our fingers that it isn't more time, but Morgan has expressed an interest in participating in the year end talent show. This is coming from the girl who passed on the opportunity to have a speaking part in the Winter Concert. Now she wants to perform some of her "gymnastic tricks" solo on a stage. While I would like to encourage this, I don't want to have to take off work for the auditions (yes - they have to audition for this!), the practices and the performance which is once again, during the middle of the day. Mark and I are not bringing it up again, and we are hoping she doesn't either. Shhhhh.

The Very Hungry Turtle

2010-04-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

Morgan's class had to write a book based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The following is her story, the Very Hungry Turtle. I have inserted translations below the pictures.

The Very Hungry Turtle

One lollipop

Two hot dogs

three ice creams (Notice the m at the end of the word. She makes loops in the middle of the m on purpose, kind of like putting a heart about an i instead of the dot. It's her own personal flair.)

four sandwiches (And her writing samwiches can be blamed on Mark. That is how he likes to pronounce sandwiches. He thinks it sound cooler. When we tried to explain to Morgan that the work is actually sandwich, her response was "That's gross. Who wants to eat sand!" Again, she has her flaired out m.)

Five eggs

Two chocolates, five lollipops

A piece of seaweed.

Earth Day 2010 - Tree Planting

2010-04-23T09:00:00.000-06:00

I wasn't able to go to the tree planting ceremony, but about 20 minutes after it started the weather turned bad. Out by office it was downpouring and there were tornado warnings. I was wondering if the kids had a chance to plant their tree.

Then I received the following pictures from one of my girlfriends who was able to attend. They were able to have their ceremony, but notice the omnious weather rolling in the background.

And then the tornado warning was announced and they had to duck for cover in the hallways.

Not sure how much help a book over their head is going to provide!

Earth Day 2010

2010-04-22T08:46:00.002-06:00

Since we are in a fairly new neighborhood that is out on the plains, there are not many trees around, especially on the school property. The front of the school is a big huge grassy field without a tree in sight. In honor of Earth Day, Morgan's school has been collecting money in order to plant trees on the property. They collected enough to buy one tree per grade which will be planted today along the entrance to the school. Each grade will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and will participate in the planting of their designated tree. These trees will belong and be maintained by the classroom throughout the school year. The teachers can integrate them into the classroom however they choice whether it's to plant flowers around or collect the leaves for art projects. At some point, each tree will receive a plaque dedicating it to the corresponding grade.

Morgan can't wait to participate in this today. Her class has picked out which hole they want, the one on the end, closest to the parking lot. Television cameras will be there to film the event. It should be an exciting time for the kids.

Saguaro National Park and the Biosphere2

2010-04-20T10:27:00.001-06:00

I finally got the pictures off my parent's cds so I can wrap up our trip by going back in time a couple of days to the Saguaro National Park.

The park has a pretty impressive Junior Ranger program. Most parks just give you a workbook, but this one also gives you a whole backpack filled with field guides, colored pencils and Morgan's favorite - binoculars.

The workbook included several activies such as a scavanger hunt to help keep Morgan occupied during our hike. The rangers there were great with Morgan and took the time to show her photos taken of animals that visited the park watering hole during the night. They also lead her outside the station to show her a nest of baby birds.

The cacti in the park are impressively tall.

And there was an area on our trail that showed you how, even though it doesn't look like it, there is water to be found. If you dug for a little bit, you would come to wet sand.

But as far as National Parks go, there is not a whole lot to do here. Once you've hiked one trail through the desert, you've pretty much seen all there is to see.

The next day we headed to Biosphere2, stopping at Catalina State Park along the way as it was rumored to have some desert blooms.

Morgan had a great time using Gigi's binoculars to keep herself occupied. Forget about looking out for animals or cacti in the distances, she was most amused at observing how close we looked to her.

We arrived at Biosphere2 in the early afternoon and signed up for a tour.

It was hard to take pictures inside since everything was so enclosed, but the tour was facinating. It's amazing to think of the eight people that lived inside this place, closed off from the rest of the world for two years. They had so many jobs to fill - farmer, animal caretaker, scientist, and mechanic.

My favorite room was the ocean room where sea water was shipped in and a real coral reef was developed. The room even re-creates the tides, complete with a sandy beach.

The "lungs" were also amazing to see. Since the Biosphere2 was self-contained, they needed to deal with the expansion and contraction of the air inside on hot or cold days. So that it wouldn't implode or explode, they needed to build rooms that allowed a concrete ceiling to raise or fall, dependant on the air pressure inside. It was pretty neat to see and even feel. The air pressure caused by leaving the Biosphere was enough to blow a hat or glasses right off of you!

To have sustained eight humans and some 3,800 species of plants and animals in seven biomes is quite an impressive feat!

Tucson Children's Museum.

2010-04-16T07:35:00.000-06:00

The last day in Tucson it was cold and rainy so we decided to do an indoor activity. When we asked Morgan what she wanted to do that day, she wanted to go back to the Sonoran Glass Art Academy. She really loved this experience. We had to explain that you needed reservations, plus it was too expensive to do twice. Her more reasonable pick was the Children's Museum. It's housed in a really neat older building downtown. The place is small, but it's packed full of fun activities and we managed to spend the whole day here.

Notice the screen on the inside of the firetruck. It simulates a real drive to a fire.

Morgan spent a lot of time on the rope maze. You belt on a bungee cord and hook a carabine to one of the colored ropes. Then you try to make your way from one end to the other, climbing over and under the ropes in your way.

Crafts were offered three times through out the day. Here Morgan is making butterfly wings to wear on her back.

Another big hit was the veterinarian area complete with a pet grooming station.

There was also an exercise room where you are super-imposed in the exercise video. One could do hip-hop or yoga.

Other exhibits included Dinosaur World, Build-it, Whistle Stop Gallery, Musica de Las Americas and Mind Your Own Body. The museum does not have a restaurant, but a short walk downtown brought us to a strip of places to choice from. The only downside is that there is no free parking and the meters are two hours max so we had to make several trips out to the car through out the day. Otherwise it was a pretty relaxing and slower pace day to end our trip on.

(Still need to post our trip to Saguaro National Park and the Biosphere2. Computer is back up and running so I just need to get to my parent's pictures)

Tombstone

2010-04-14T03:32:00.000-06:00

I'm skipping two days as our computer is not playing nice so I'm not able to get the pictures off my parents CD yet. I will go back to those days once I beat the computer.

After my parents headed back to Green Bay, we headed down to Tombstone for a day. It's touristy and cheesy but sometimes I like that kind of thing.

One of the main reason I wanted to go was to visit one of the most haunted buildings in America, the Bird Cage Theatre, which allegedly hosts as many as 31 ghosts. It is one of the oldest original buildings in Tombstone and most authentic, still containing original wallpaper, curtains and other fixtures. The saloon was the scene of 26 deaths, which can be attested to by the 140 bullet holes still viewable (and even touchable) in the walls and bar. Historic figures such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson once walked on the very floorboards that you can.

Inside, it is very creepy. Above the gambling floor and stage are 14 "bird cages" that once housed ladies of the night. The gambling parlour continues to feature the actual table where Doc Holliday once dealt faro, and lining the walls are photographs of the many who passed through its doors, as well as original paintings that hung in the establishment. Also on display is Tombstone’s famous horse-drawn hearse called the Black Moriah. I would not want to come in here along at night!

Next, Morgan wanted to ride the stagecoach tour. It cost way too much money and was way too short, but it was Morgan' highlight nether less.

We stopped at Big Nose Kate's for lunch. Big Nose Kate was Doc Holliday's girlfriend and a saloon owner. The food was mediocre and the service was down right poor. We were there for a very long hour and half. It's only saving grace was that it had a extremely talented singer performing. He was amazing and very entertaining.

Next we headed down the street to see the OK Corral. We did not go to the live re-enactment as Morgan expressed some serious fears over seeing it.

We did spend some time watching the historical presentation voiced over by Vincent Price, climbed into some old carriages, walked through a prostitutes single-room "house", bought a personalized horseshoe from Grizz the local blacksmith, checked out the much tamer mannequin re-enactment...

...and tried our hands at roping cattle.

We continued to exploring the old buildings and watch the many gunslingers roaming the streets. We weren't sure how many of the gunslingers were actual Tombstone performers and how many just got dressed up for the heck of it (kind of like people at a Renaissance Fair) but there were lots of elaborate costumes to see. We slowly made our way back to our car parked on the following roads:

And headed to Boothill where many of the famous people from Tombstone are buried. This is supposed to be the first graveyard named Boothill, so called because most of them died suddenly (murdered) with their boots still on.
The grave markers were very interesting to read with things like "Stabbed by Gold Dollar" "Shot by Curly Bill" and my favorite one:

While it is touristy, it was fascinating to a lot of interesting history about Tombstone and the people who lived there. It was definitely an different (and rough) era.

Finished Product

2010-04-13T15:03:00.000-06:00

We received our creations that we made at the Sonoran Glass Art Academy in the mail. They were packaged extremely well and I was glad we paid the extra money to get them home safely. They turned out better than expected, especially my mom's bowl.

Here is the bowl that she made:

And here is my ornament (on the left) and Morgan's ornament (on the right).

Since Morgan used three colors, the pink didn't turn out as pink as she hoped, but she was still happy with it.

Now I need to figure out how to display these so that the cats don't destroy them!

Morganisms

2010-04-12T13:37:00.000-06:00

Still trying to get my act together with all the vacation pictures. In the meantime here are some things heard around the house these past few weeks.

"Yesterday Robbie yelled at me. I was sitting next to him and I was just breathing. He told me that my breathing was anoying him and to stop breathing. I told him I couldn't. It's nature!"

After falling down several times in a row, she stated in a very sad voice: "God made me clumsy".

"I can't wait to go to the desert. I get to wear my spagetti straps again!"

She's been having issues with getting to school on time, so in a moment of severe frustration I told her that if she kept being late, she would not be able to go on to 1st grade. Thinking of course, that this would be a bad consequence. Not thinking that one of her best friend's Madison is younger and would be entering kindergarten next year. Instead of putting a skip in her step, a huge smile crossed her face as she exclaimed how great it would be to be in class with Madison. Well that backfired!

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

2010-04-09T10:06:00.004-06:00

Our first stop on our Tucson vacation was the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This really isn't a stereotypical museum, but rather half Botanical Gardens, half zoo. Per their website: Exhibits re-create the natural landscape of the Sonoran Desert Region so realistically you find yourself eye-to-eye with mountain lions, prairie dogs, Gila monsters, and more. Within the Museum grounds, you will see more than 300 animal species and 1,200 kinds of plants. There are almost 2 miles of paths traversing 21 acres of beautiful desert.

After entering the museum we spent $1 for the optional animal tracking booklet. Scattered through out the grounds are 14 stations, each containing an animal track stamp to add to your booklet. We figured this would help keep Morgan entertained. We figured we wouldn't walk the whole 2 miles, but we could get further with Morgan if she had an incentive. Little did we know...

...that this would become an obsession for her. She was on a mission (and sucessful) to collect ALL 14 stamps over the 2 mile course, sometimes doubling back. We entered the place at 9:30 and were in the gift shop at 4:30. They close at 5.

Needless to stay, we saw almost everything. And let me tell you, there is A LOT to see. I don't know why, but I didn't take any pictures (besides a very fuzzy, unworthy to post one) of any of the animals but there were mexican wolves, cougars, bobcats, coyotoes, beavers, otters, bears, scorpions and rattlesnakes to name just a few of the hundreds housed here.

I did capture some of the many birds that were birds in displays as well as just visiting, including the Roadrunner in the first picture below. Which is definetely smaller then the roadrunner in the Wile E. Coyotoe cartoons.

There were caves and hidden paths to explore.

And lots of hands on activities. Including crawling into a turtle shell and then getting stuck and instead of anyone helping you out, they all laugh and take pictures of you in your misery.

And lots...

...and lots...
...and lots of catcus.

Tucson Casita

2010-04-07T19:44:00.000-06:00

Instead of staying at a hotel, we rented a condo through VRBO.com. We've used this website several times and love it. It's usually more affordable then staying in a hotel, you get lots more space and you aren't forced to eat at a restaurant meal after meal (which is always a good thing when you have a tired out kid). Our condo was at Starr Trail, a golf community and included access to the pool, fitness center and hot tub. The condo backed to the golf course and a dirt road leading to a trail head.

In the morning and evening there were tons of birds to watch including cactus wren, cardinals, doves, and quail and even a roadrunner scamper across the back patio. While trying to capture the birds on camera, it became very clear to me that my nemisis was the quail. They look so cute with their little plumes on their heads, but dang can those birds run fast. I was finally able to capture one before he disappeared into the foliage. He's on the left of the cactus. Score one for me!

The dirt road made a fun place to wander and explore. We saw jackrabbits including a little baby no bigger than Morgan's palm, compared our height to the cacti and found some flowers.

Just ask the main critic, it was a wonderful homebase for Tucson.

Tucson and Back

2010-04-06T12:17:00.003-06:00

We made it back from Tucson this weekend and had a wonderful trip. We are now experts on identifying catci and desert birds, knowing that the javelina is not a pig and learning just hot the desert can feel even if it's only in the 70's. My folks met us out there for half the trip and Morgan learned that there is no such thing as a fully retired professor. At one point during the trip she asked Baba if he was teaching her a class or what. Growing up with this my whole life, I found this comment quite amusing. (Love you Dad!)

I have lots of photos to sort through and I'm waiting on a photo disk from my folks since there were several times I forgot my camera or forgot to change the batteries.

Until then, here are a couple of pictures of the Sonoran Glass Art Academy (courtesy of my mom's camera) where they offer Blow Your Own classes for everyone. My mom created a bowl while Morgan and I each made an ornament. Morgan thought this was the coolest thing ever and wants to do it again some day. I was just glad that we all made it out of there without any 1st or 2nd degree burns.

My ornament turned out huge. Apparently I'm able to blow a lot of hot air.

She picked a pink and blue base with green sprinkles put on at the end.

Because the ornament needs to go into a 700 degree kiln to slowly cool off, we have yet to see our finished products. They shipped them to us last week so we should have them by Thursday or Friday. I'll post those pictures when they become available.

Stay tuned.

Spring Break Time

2010-03-26T09:33:00.001-06:00

Gone...
Be Back Soon...

Anticipation

2010-03-25T10:33:00.000-06:00

Two more nights until our family vacation? Think someone might be just a little excited?

Yes, that's her suitcase. And yes, she slept in it last night. And no, it's not that big. She was all curled up inside it. Mark couldn't stand to see her cramped up. I told him to leave her and if it hurt her that much 1) she wouldn't have stayed in it or 2) she would wake up a little sore in the morning and know not to do that again. He moved her to her bed anyways. I woke up in the middle of the night to a screaming, panicking little girl (Mark of course, blissfully slept through the whole episode). She was freaked, not knowing how she ended up in her bed and desperately wanted to be back in the suitcase.

The next morning Morgan had a little "chat" with her dad. Next time, he will leave her be.

Extreme Sorting

2010-03-24T16:00:00.000-06:00

One busy afternoon with several trip up and down the stair created this chaos.

But look closely. There is a method to her madness. All felines and bears are piled up here.

All dogs belong here.

Along with many others properly categorized items such as rabbits, horses, cows (who knew we had so many stuffed cows??!!), insects and humans.

And one uninvited guest who would not cooperate and be sorted into his proper category.

Easter Eggs

2010-03-22T19:01:00.004-06:00

This weekend we colored our Easter Eggs. In years past, it was a quick dunk in one color and she was ready to move on. This is the first year that Morgan was able to get really creative with her eggs.

She waited patiently as she colored half an egg one color and the other half another.

She carefully blotted the eggs.

Mark and I finished our eggs before she had gotten half way through with hers.

Her finished project included an egg with a butterfly and an egg with a carrot draw on it as well as several multi-colored eggs. That egg in front, second from the right is Mark's. It says "Bunnies Taste Good". Morgan was very concerned about the Easter Bunny seeing this one and getting mad at us!

After an hour of coloring, eggs weren't the only thing that ended up more colorful then they started out as.

Sitting Still

2010-03-19T13:00:00.000-06:00

Having Sensory Processing Disorder, especially being a sensory seeker causes Morgan to appear hyper, like her engine is away on the go (this blog isn't called "Whirlwind" for no reason!) Needless to say, this makes it very difficult for Morgan to sit still in the classroom. She was getting into trouble on a regular basis. The therapist at the Center recommended we wrap a thera-band around the base of her chair. That way she would get the muscle workout she craves by kicking her legs against it.

We've had this thera-band in place for a few weeks when we received an e-mail from the teacher that it was no longer working. Morgan had been setting her chair on the floor, backside down so that she could bounce on the band. Not exactly using the chair appropriately and not exactly safe. It was apparent that she needed more then just feedback back to her legs muscles, but to her whole core as well.

After observing her in the classroom, the school OT suggested we bring in a small rocking chair.

The rocking chair provides full body sensory input without being a distraction in the classroom. We have had this chair in place for a week and I'm happy to report that her teacher has said it is working wonderfully. She is more focused and is getting up less often.

Hmmm... maybe I could convince my work that I need a rocking chair, preferable a nice comfy Lazy Boy one, for my job too!

Rainbow Pancakes

2010-03-17T07:55:00.003-06:00

In honor of St. Patty's Day, I made leprechaun rainbow pancakes inspired by Momma's Gone Over the Wall. Two holiday-themed breakfasts within a couple of months - I'm becoming a regular Martha Stewart.

The Magic Tree House

2010-03-15T12:05:00.003-06:00

Morgan has discovered the Magic Tree House Chapter books and loves them. They are about two siblings who are teleported back in time or to distant lands by a magic tree house. We started with the Riddle Series (books 9-12) so we have not read the first book and we do not know how the kids meet Morgan Le Fay, the lady who send the kids on their adventures. It is apparent their parents do not know Morgan Le Fay and their adventures are a secret.

So my Morgan has a good question. A smart question: If their parents don't know Morgan Le Fay and Morgan Le Fay was a stranger, why did the kids start going away with her? Don't they know about Stranger Danger?

I guess we'll have to read the first book and see if the author Mary Pope Osborne handles the stranger danger issue because Morgan is very worried.

Playing Hookie

2010-03-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Friday was yet another Teacher Work Day so Morgan had off of school. My friend April and I decided to play hookie from work and have a girls out day. The weather was beautiful so we headed to the zoo. I must say, this was one of the most relaxing trips I've ever had at the zoo. I don't know if it's because the kids are getting older? Or it could be because we had a day were we said yes to just about everything. The girls got to ride both rides, have lunch, a snack and one toy from the gift shop, which ends up making a free with membership day, not so free.

You'll notice a theme with the following pictures. Rather then getting their pictures taken with the real animals of the zoo, you they wanted their pictures taken with all the status and such. The real animals were second class.

Show-Offs

2010-03-11T08:53:00.002-07:00

Morgan: This is how show-offs walk

She puts her hands on her hips, swinging them from side to side as she does a dramatic stomp walk.

Morgan: They are called show-offs because they show-off the clothes.

In case you couldn't tell, she's talking about models. She's picked this up from watching Project Runway on Lifetime. Surprisingly, she's fascinated with this show. She's fascinated that people can make their own clothes and even more fascinated that boys sew as well as girls. She also has an uncanny knack for picking out the winning outfit.

If she doesn't become a rock star, perhaps she will be a future designer?

A Rock Star

2010-03-09T09:51:00.003-07:00

Apparently a rock star puts huge ink stamps across their cheeks. They also decorate their entire face (nose, cheeks, forehead) with lip gloss so they are sparkly. At least this is what I was told by my five year old who went to school this morning as a greasy, glossy mess!

The Simple Things

2010-03-08T09:46:00.003-07:00

You know how when you watch Supernanny and she introduces the simplest technique or idea to the parents and you want to scream at your tv - duh, that's so obvious, how do the parents not know that? Well, Morgan's therapist introduced us to a why-the-heck-didn't-we-think-of-this technique that has made our life tons easier.

Morgan has always had big issues with transitions. I can't tell you how many times a verbal warning of five more minutes would lead to a full blown melt down. She also needs constant verbal reminders and redirecting when she is trying to complete a task. We've turned blue in the face with the amount of times we've said, you have 10 more minutes before we leave and you still need to do A, B and C. We were exhausted!

Morgan's OT introduced us to the most wonderful invention ever - the time timer which gives her a visual reminder of how much time is left.

We don't have to prod anymore and when the clock dings, letting her know the time is up, she knows better then to throw a fit at an inanimate object.

But the reason I really, really love this clock, is the new found independence it has given Morgan. In the morning Morgan sets the clock for an hour, plays by herself and then wakes us up when the hour has passed. The girl who gets upset when she needed to go into a room RIGHT NEXT DOOR to you by herself is finally learning to be on her own. We were so happy this weekend when we heard her little feet pitter pat down the hall, the beep of the clock as she set it, the pitter pat down the stairs, the sliding of the back door as she lets Champ out and the quiet that followed allowing Mark and I to get some more rest.

Yes, I love these clocks.

The Learning Plate - Take 3

2010-03-02T16:13:00.003-07:00

Since so many people were interested in this idea, I thought I would give another follow-up now that's be in place for a while.

We still have not had to introduce the Learning Plate, but Morgan is definitely testing the concept. She isn't eating as many foods anymore, I think, in an attempt to see if we really won't press the issue. It's hard to bite your tongue, especially when you see her leave food she usually tries untouched on her plate. As we stay quiet and continue to disengage, I'm hoping that she starts to try things again. I'm 99% sure this is the strong-willed child testing the boundaries to see if we go back to our previous battles.

I'll keep you posted.

Graduation Day

2010-02-24T16:12:00.002-07:00

Morgan has had her last OT session. She has made huge strides in the sensory department. She's able to flip her socks inside out so that they don't bother her as much anymore. Most shoes are a non-issue, while she's learned to tolerate boots with minimum fuss. We know to give her a full sensory diet with lots of jumping, bouncing, and heavy work. Thanks to our friends, we have a small trampoline, like the one from her Center, that she uses daily.

I'll miss her Olivia Newton John look. The headset is part of a special listening therapy. During therapy, specific sound frequencies and patterns are delivered via these specially designed headphones that include vibration.

While she no longer has OT sessions with Tristian, we will continue to go to the Center for psychological services focused on emotional competence, problem-solving, and well-being. We still have a long road ahead of us, but at least we are getting closer.

Our Toothless Wonder

2010-02-23T16:07:00.002-07:00

This weekend Morgan lost yet another tooth for a total of five. Luckily, her two bottom middle teeth are almost all the way in or else she wouldn't be able to chew anything!

Morgan has figured out just what that tooth fairy is up to: "She collects teeth so she can grind them down into her fairy dusty".

The Learning Plate So Far

2010-02-17T15:11:00.003-07:00

This thing has been incredible! I really doubted the fact that Morgan was going to be able to scoop the food onto her plate. This is the girl who throws herself onto the floor in pure agony if there is baked chicken on her plate. Never mind the fact that chicken nuggets are her favorite food. Chicken that is not fried in little circles must taste just horrible.

But guess what? So far we haven't had to introduce the Learning Plate. So far she's put five tablespoons of each food on her plate. So far there hasn't been any meltdowns, battles or whining. So far there hasn't been the questions or prodding on how much more needs to be eaten.

And on top of that? So far she's tried everything on her plate without any begging and pleading on our part. So far she's tried shrimp in sauce (both seafood AND sauce being a hot point), she's finished all her glazed ham and she's eaten all her vegetables. She hasn't cared for everything, but when she doesn't like it, there is no drama. Mark and I exchanged excited glances at each other as we sit there in silence (and awe) and watch her eat. So far we are more relaxed since we are no longer active participants in her eating choices.

And so far meal time has been absolutely 100% pleasant.

Cats

2010-02-17T06:00:00.002-07:00

Words I never, ever in a million years thought I would say: "Morgan stop putting the cat in the oven". Now before anyone from PETA starts hunting me down, let me explain that I was talking about her play kitchen. But still. Sounds pretty weird doesn't it?

Despite the terror that goes on in our house, Genghis is adjusting wonderfully to the family. Abbey and him are becoming great buddies, hanging out and playing together. I even caught Abbey licking all over his head while he laid there with eyes closed purring.

Yep. He's fitting right in.

Our Little Hockey Player

2010-02-15T19:30:00.002-07:00

Morgan lost two teeth at school. She's been planning on losing them at school for a while now. If they come out there, she gets to go to the nurses office and get a special tooth box. So after much twisting and cranking, they both came out. Now she's got the smile of a hockey player.

On the way home from school, she lost one of her teeth so we had to write a note (again) to the tooth fairy. Wanting to make sure she that she got fully compensated for BOTH teeth, she placed the note under the the pillow one night, and the box with the tooth the second night. "So she doesn't get confused."

The next day I lost my cellphone. Morgan told me I should write a note and put it under my pillow so that the cellphone fairy could give me a new onee. And then she laughed and laughed.

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-15T07:22:00.003-07:00

Morgan made two Valentine's Day cards at school. One for me, a hope you feel better card for my eyes and an I love you one for... Genghis! She's mastered the art of star-making and now decorates all things with stars.

I'm pretty impressed.

The Learning Plate

2010-02-11T11:10:00.002-07:00

Morgan's SPD sometimes gets in the way of our meal times. While she doesn't have full blown sensory adversion to food, she does have strong preferences. Add to that the fact that she has control issues and a strong will meal time can sometimes be less then pleasant. Her therapist gave us the following meal time plan and I'm very excited to put it into play. The following is a summary of said plan.

1. Prepare your child for the dinner meals changes before you implement them. Make sure to emphasize that it's about the WHOLE family learning, not just them.

2. Each meal should have one protein, one starch and one fruit/vegetable. At least one of these foods must be a preferred food.

3. Serve the meal family style with each person passing each food and taking a small amount to put on their plate. A rule of thumb is that a serving size = 1 tablespoon per year of age. If your child balks or is having a negative reaction, you can tell them that if it's too hard to put X tablespoons on their plate, then they can put just one tablespoon on their plate. If this is still too hard, then you can present the "learning plate".

4. The learning plate is a plate in the middle of the table where everyone can put a food that they don't want to have on their plate. For example, if a parent feels like they are tired of eating a chicken nugget, it can go on the learning plate.

5. At some point during the meal, there needs to be a conversation about the learning plate. Start with just talking about the food (how many there are, the color, the size, ect). Then move to the next step of interacting with it (uses a utensil to touch it or stir it). Next smell the food. If they tolerate that, then move on to touching the food with any part of the body. The last step is to taste the food whether it's just a lick, a bite that is spit out or a full chew and swallow.

6. If your child protests at any step, back off. The goal is to get them to experience different foods without forcing or pressuring. It will take time.

Last night we gave Morgan the heads up that there are going to be fun new changes to how we are going to all do dinner. Tonight, we will go over the specific details with her and the next night we will start to implement it.

I'm excited to start this new program and see how it helps our meal times become better times!

What is Love?

2010-02-09T08:41:00.001-07:00

There is no higher form of love then being told "I love you more then a dead rat". Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?

Surgeries

2010-02-05T12:38:00.001-07:00

This week there have been several surgeries happening to members of our household. Earlier this week, we had the vet remove a large mass from Champ. He was pretty sure it was a fatty mass, but with the way our luck has been, we wanted to make sure. It was a benign fatty tissue so that was good news. Bad news is that Champ messed around with his stitches and ended up getting an infection. He now sports the "cone of shame".

I had Lasik surgery yesterday. It went well and I'm happy to report that I can now see without glasses or contacts. The procedure is pretty simple and not painful at all. After the surgery, my eyes burned pretty bad for about an hour but then they were fine. Could have something to do with the Valium they give you as well. Those things are awesome. I'm going to talk to my doctor about giving me some before I fly. Although I'd probably need Mark to carry me off of the plane.

It's a bit weird getting used to being able to see unassisted 25+ years of wearing glasses or contact. But it's a good weird. Besides the great eyesight, the next best thing to come out of the surgery is these nifty glasses I need to wear at bedtime for a month. They protect my eyes from any accident bumping or scratching. Aren't they just the hottest things ever? Mark can barely contain himself. LOL!

Happy Groundhog Day

2010-02-02T09:24:00.004-07:00

In honor of Groundhog Day, Crunchy Green Lovin' Mom turned me on to a special breakfast created by Gourmet Mom on-the-Go (did you follow all that??). Of course, I didn't take a picture of my creation so below is the picture from Gourment Mom on-the-Go's website. Mine looked basically like the one below except I added blueberries to the middle of my flowers and my groundhog's eyes were sort of sliding off his face.

I've always wanted to create special breakfasts for Morgan, but have never found the time or have thought of the idea too late. Which was evident by her reaction. The food was so cute that she didn't want to eat it and ruin it. She wanted to keep it as a decoration. I coaxed her into gobbling up her groundhog by promising to make another tonight. To keep. Just as decoration.

Here Kitty, Kitty!

2010-01-29T09:01:00.005-07:00

We've been thinking about adding a new family member. I've been keeping my eye on the shelter listings and have found a few potential candidates. We've been wanting a Siamese, but apparently they are in high demand. Each time I've gone to look at them (within a day of them being listed), they are already gone. It's been crazy. A couple weeks ago I came across this listing.

Pretty hideous eh? Doesn't even look like a Siamese, so I ignored him. After all the other cats had been scoped up so fast, I decided I might as well go and take a look at him in person. I called the shelter and found out this picture was taken at 2 months and he is now 7 months old. He was in a foster home but was now available at the shelter.

I was pleasantly surprised when I met him. He was a handsome little fellow. The only thing was, he still didn't really look like a Siamese. He had the point marks, but that was about it. And even then, he had pure white feet with the marks starting above his huge paws. Ultimately, he won me over with his good looks and sweet disposition. I decided to go for it.

Being a foster cat, I was not allowed to visit with him, let alone adopt him, unless the foster mom approved my application first. The person in front of me was handing in an application for a different foster pet and the receptionist informed her that it would be about a week and they would get back to her. Great, I thought as I handed in my application. But then she informed me that the foster mom was at the shelter and she could look at my application right there and then. And I was approved! I told them that I was surprised that he was still around and they informed me that there have been many, many applications, but none had been approved. I guess our home was a good match.

The pictures do not do him justice. I'm not able to fully capture his unique cream coloring and markings with my camera. You can see in the first picture, his right eye has brown scar tissue on it from his eye infections when he was first found. While he's eye sight is fine, the scar is permanent.

We'd been batting around some names (Wonton, Moo Shu, Yeti) but none seemed to really fit. Meanwhile, I was really curious to figure out what he's mixed with since he's characteristics are so unusually. That's when I discovered that he most closely resembles a Tabby-Point Birman (obviously he's a mix), who's main distinquishing feature is the pure white feet.

Then I found out that Birman breed has an interesting naming convention. Each year is assigned a letter of the alphabet and then the cat receives a name that starts with the same letter. While some countries skip letters, the US runs through all the letters. 2009, the year he was born is the year of the "G". And then the right name clicked into place.

So everyone, please say hello to Genghis.

Homemade Sensory Stepping Stones

2010-01-21T10:52:00.005-07:00

I have been contemplating whether or not I should buy some sensory stepping stones for home therapy. At $65 they are pretty expensive but they but the different textured stone surfaces stimulate sensory development.

Then Morgan solved the dilema all on her own.

As I was getting ready for work, Morgan was very busy playing in the loft. When I came out, she showed me her busy work. A bunch of her stuffed animals; all ranging in size, softness, stuffing (ie beans versus cotton) and fur texture, had been spread out in several paths. She was pretending there was hot lava on the floor and she needed to stay on her "stepping stones" in order to make it to safety. She had managed to incorporate all the elements of her therapy without us having to spend a dime. Brilliant!

Why My Husband is a Brave Man

2010-01-19T12:39:00.004-07:00

Mark took off yesterday to be with Morgan since there wasn't any school. It's been a while since he had an extra day off with her and I think he was trying to make up for lost time because this was their day:

First there was breakfast at IHOP followed by a morning at the local bouncy house. Now that in it's self would be enough kid-friendly fun for one day but then he also went to Chuck E Cheese. That's right a bouncy house AND Chuck E Cheese all in one day. It doesn't end there either. After that they went to the local animal shelter to look at the new batch of Chihuahua that came in from California. I think he might have outdone himself.

And speaking of Chihuahuas, if you have never read a SkippyJon Jones book, you must check them out. They are our current household favorite (especially Lost in Spice) and one of the driving forces behind Morgan's love for the Chihuahuas.
If you are looking at this cover and wondering what Chihuahuas have to do with a Siamese cat, you're going to have to read the book to find out!

Toys to Grow on - Good, Sears - Bad

2010-01-13T08:50:00.003-07:00

In this day and age, it's not too often you get great customer service, especially without putting up a fight, but Toys To Grown On far out weighed my expectations. Morgan's Clap and Laugh microphone that she got for Christmas suddenly stopped working. The stand still works with the clapping and laughing buttons, but the microphone is silent. Despite my jokes about needing it to come to an untimely death, we did not sabbotage the thing. And despite the fact that she sometimes drives me crazy with this toy, she does really love it. And so, being the good mom that I am (cough, cough) I contacted Toys to Grown On and inquired about the cost of replacing just the microphone piece. I immediately got a response from Customer Service apologizing for the problems I encountered and offering to replace the microphone for FREE. Yep. Free. Just like that. I was blown away. I will definetely be shopping at Lakeshore Learning (our local store that carries the TTGO line) more often.

On the other hand there is Sears. I will never use Sear again for any type of service call. Our dishwasher broke and we scheduled an appointment with one of their repairmen. Our window was on a week day from 1 pm - 5 pm. At 5 pm I received a call from the repairman stating he was running late and would be there in an hour. We waited another hour, at which time the phone ran again. It was the repairman stating it was too dark for him to be able to find our house and he wondered if I would reschedule. I told him I would not. That I had already waited five hours for service and I would not be able to take another day off work. He started explaining that his GPS wasn't working and that he eouldn't see the numbers on the house. I told him that I could give him directions but he wasn't interested. Then I told him that in the old days, people found other people's houses without a GPS and that people find addresses ALL THE TIME in the dark. Then Mark talked to him on the phone while standing outside. Mark saw the guy drive by and told him that he JUST SAW HIM. The guy still refused to stop. At this point, I really didn't want him to stop, because goodness knows what kind of service we would have received at this point. When we called Sears to complain, they told us that we had to reschedule for another four hour window, they could not guarantee us the first appointment in the morning. When we told them we already waited five hours and didn't want to wait again, they just didn't care.

Mark found a local handyman who came the next day. The handyman called us before he left for our place and told us he would be there in 15 minutes. No waiting. And he temporary fixed the dishwasher for much less, and he worked with Mark on what part Mark needed to order and how to install it himself when it came in. Needless to say, we are keeping this guys card.

As for Sears, a week later I received an automatic message confirming our dishwasher appointment for the next day between 1 and 5 pm. An appointment that we never rescheduled. an appointment I promptly cancelled (only because they had our credit card number and could charge us for showing up, otherwise I would not have given them the courtesy).

Sensory Box and Report Cards

2010-01-12T07:22:00.004-07:00

Since starting kindergarten, we have been getting regular reports about Morgan having difficulty paying attention. We've been trying to explain to the teacher her Sensory Processing Disorder and how it affects her learning but she's hasn't been very receptive. FINALLY, she asked to work with the therapist on techniques she can use in the classroom to help Morgan's focus. So last week, I put together a sensory box for the classroom. Oral stimulation helps Morgan calm down and focus so the box consisted of gum, chewy candy like Starbursts, a water bottle with a straw and a couple of chew sticks, that look like below. (As a side note, she calls the chew sticks her chew toys. I think we need to come up with a better name so it doesn't sound the same as something a dog plays with!)
I checked in with the teacher this week to see how the box has been working. I am so happy to report that the box has been working out extremely well. The teacher has noticed that Morgan is much more engaged and attentive when she has an item from her box. Also, Morgan has been doing a wonderful job of self-regulating herself by getting an item before the teacher has to direct her to do so. This is great news!

We also received her report card this week. Academically she is still doing great. She received proficient in all areas with a few exceptions. She received partially proficient in knowing one less from 5-1 and in spelling 11 or more words from the high frequency word list. With the spelling, she probably just couldn't think of 11 words from the list since she is a better speller then she is a reader. And finally, she received Advanced in all four areas of reading.

Looks like the second half of school should go smoother then the first.

December In Review

2010-01-05T12:04:00.009-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive. The holiday seasons got super crazy and super busy, but I'm back now. Let's see if I can sum up the last month...

I co-hosted a holiday party at our community clubhouse for 40 kids. We had cookie decorating, ornament making, and games such as pin-the-nose on Rudolph, snowball toss and musical presents. We also had a very special guest. I happen to work with Santa and he agreed to come and give us a visit. He's an EXCELLENT Santa. Even my daughter who runs and ducks at the mere sight of most characters was more then happy to visit with him.

Christmas was filled with way too many presents even though I could have sworn we toned it down this year.

And no, that is not eye shadow in that box. All of the containers are either lip gloss or nail polish.

Bendaroos were high on her list, but once we played with them, they were terrible. They do NOT hold their shape and they do NOT stick together. Even when art projects don't work out right, Morgan usually still loves them. Not so much with these. After one time, she was ready to get rid of them. I do not recommend Bendaroos at all!

When I was little, my grandfather handmade a work bench. Morgan uses that work bench to "fix" her toys but she has never had a real project to work on. Thanks to Staci at Mamma's Gone Over the Wall I found the Project of the Month Club and Mark placed an order for the woodworking projects. Now every other month, her and Mark will have a fun project to bond over.

Morgan's absolute favorite gift from us is her microphone. In hindsight, we should have never bought a chatty-kathy something that enables her to increase her volume while following you around the house room-to-room, narrating your every move.

After gift opening at our house, we headed on over to Mark's Dad's house. Morgan was ecstatic to get her #1 present wish - the Dot's Ice Cream Maker. She wanted this so badly, that she put it on three wish lists with the hope that she would have one to play with at home, one to keep at Grandpa's and one to keep at Grandma's.

On Saturday, we took a break from all the holiday celebrations to play at the Wildlife Experience. They were having a special exhibit on the life cycle of butterflies, starting at cocoons...

...escaping from really scary looking spiders...

... to getting your wings and flying away.

Sunday we celebrated at Mark's Mom's house.

If that wasn't enough, during her winter break she also:
• Went to Gymnastic Camp where she did tons of gymnastics as well as bowled, skated and saw Cloudly with a Chance of Meatballs
• Saw The Princess and the Frog
• Had a playdate with her bestest friends Taralyn and Ellie at Taralyn's house
• Went downhill skiing with Mark at Echo Mountain
• Went tubing with us and the neighbors at Fraser
• Stayed up to 1 am on New Years at a neighborhood party
• And visited with the Chihuahua, her favorite breed of dog, at our local shelter (around 20 were shipped in from California)

And that is why I have not had time to be on here!

Whew!

1 + 1 = ?

2009-12-14T10:09:00.002-07:00

Morgan had a math assignment where she had to take the numbers 1-9, draw pictures representing each one (one cat, two clouds), add one more to the picture and then write out the math sentence. For some reason, she just wasn't getting that the answer is always going to be the next numerical number. For example, to figure out 7+1 she would start counting from one. I kept explaining that it would be 8 because 8 comes next. Then she got to 9. While drawing 9 figures she lost count of how many she had already drawn. I told her to count what she had. She counted four. I asked her how many she still had to draw and without skipping a beat she replied five.

So... was she just bored with the simplier equation and therefore not concentrating or what?

A New Artistic Medium

2009-12-10T14:44:00.003-07:00

While at a restaurant, Morgan entertained herself in the following way. She took out her gum and stretched it across her napkin. Then she took the pepper and shook it all over her gum. Then she took the salt and shook it all over her gum. When asked what she was doing, she replied: making an art project.

Now that's using an unusual medium!

Denver Art Museum Rocks!

2009-11-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

While my parents were in town for Thanksgiving we went to the Denver Art Museum. Being an art minor and seeing the artist emerge from Morgan, I've been wanting to take her here for a while, but I also didn't want her to get too turned off by "a boring art museum". I had no worries. This museum is beyond kid friendly.

First of all, you can pick up a free backpack or art tube that contains different activities for the kids to do through out the museum. Morgan was overwhelmed by the choices (design an African mask, make special googles to help you hunt for foxes in an exhibit, make a cowgirl) so we passed on the backpack this time.

Even without the backpack there is plenty to do, just look for plaques with Seymour the mascot and you will find a kid friendly activity such as combining different African musical instrument to make a song, playing cowboy bingo, playing an Eye Spy Memory Game, creating your own postcard or scrap art, and building a sculpture as seen below.

Currently, there is a temporary exhibit called Embrass that has some really neat modern displays. My favorite was Chamber. It's a big room with projectors all around. At first, they project moving pixels but then the pixels turn into different words. These projections move through out the room. Some seem to flow out air vents and back in through a door. It's really neat to see. Morgan liked being in front of the projector and covering herself in pixels.

Hands down, Morgan's favorite thing was Tobias Rehberger's bungee room. It's an area filled with bungee cords where you try to push and pull your way through, finding little clearings along the way. You can't fall down if you try! We visited this spot three times between other exhibits. Morgan was having way too much to stop and take a picture so Gigi posed for me.

There are also spots to stop and rest and listen to music related to the exhibits.

We were there for three hours and only saw the first building. We did go to the second building to find the Kid's Corner but we were disappointed. There isn't much to do here: a matching shell game, a few costumes to put on, some blocks to build and a coloring sheet. We didn't stay in this room long. Next time we will just stick to all the activities in the main museum.

And Morgan's already asking when the next time is. It will definitely be sooner rather then later.

Tactile Play Gone Bad

2009-11-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Part of Morgan's therapy is to have lots of tactile play with things such as shaving cream, paints, and beans. Instead of just using her hands, she is supposed to use her feet since those seem to be most affected by her hyper-sensitivity. The thought is that the more exposure she gets, the more she will be desensitized. Here is what happens when you leave her unsupervised.

You have to give her huge props for being so thorough. She's managed to cover ever inch of the floor.

Panda-moni-No

2009-11-24T08:39:00.002-07:00

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!

2009-11-20T08:04:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-16T15:20:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-16T08:53:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-09T20:19:00.005-07:00

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

2009-11-05T09:35:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-04T06:33:00.010-07:00

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

2009-10-23T08:30:00.004-06:00

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

2009-10-22T09:17:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-21T08:57:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-14T14:06:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-11T10:20:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-09T12:31:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-01T06:45:00.002-06:00

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

2009-09-29T08:51:00.002-06:00

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

2009-09-24T16:35:00.003-06:00

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

2009-09-21T13:59:00.004-06:00

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

2009-09-16T09:35:00.001-06:00

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

2009-09-14T14:41:00.004-06:00

Week 5 of Kindergarten and Morgan has finally stopped having melt downs after school. Hopefully typing this does not curse me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

2009-09-08T14:39:00.000-06:00

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

2009-09-04T08:18:00.007-06:00

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

2009-08-31T06:19:00.001-06:00

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)

2009-08-29T12:36:00.003-06:00

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

2009-08-28T10:03:00.003-06:00

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

2009-08-27T14:57:00.002-06:00

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

2009-08-24T15:49:00.000-06:00

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

2009-08-19T09:10:00.002-06:00

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.