It's my hair

Okay...so I got my hair cut today and I am so excited about it. I think it looks great. I got rid of the layers and damaged split ends. I got it highlighted too! So, when I asked my Mom if she noticed my new haircut, she responded "yes, but I don't like that cut" aggg....couldn't she say she liked it even if she didn't?!?!? Well, that didn't kill my view of it, I still love it. I get home and wait for my family so I can show them the new hairstyle and their responses....Ethian loves it (he is such a sweet son) and Randall wanted to know why I got it cut so short without telling anyone. I didn't know I needed permission to cut my hair the way I wanted. Oh, well, I still like it and in the end that's all that really matters. Right?!?!?

Making sense of it all....

So, my son is in the process of being tested for the gifted program at school. We have pushed for the past two years to make this happen, and now that it is, we are having mixed feelings. Are we pushing him? Will this add more stress to him ? As a parent, you are always asking yourself "am I doing the right thing?" I am lucky, I get to talk with Ethian's teacher every morning and from the 4th day of knowing Ethian she suggested we should have him tested. Now, before I go on with this story, let me give you a little background.

We have always had a struggle with school and Ethian. It began in preschool, we thought it would be best to get Ethian used to going to school and to interact with other children. He had been going to a sitter. Shortly after he began preschool, we were told it wasn't a good fit for him. After asking several questions, it seemed Ethian was "too advanced for preschool" . WHAT?!?! how can a 3 or 4 year old be too advanced for preschool?!?!?! It seems, since he already knew how to count to 100+ and could say the alphabet forwards and backwards (yeah, he was given a sad face that day because he wasn't saying the alphabet correctly, all I could do was laugh, I mean in a 4 year olds mind, if you already know it, why keep saying it ?!?! I was proud of him for being so inventive) and knew a little math, this made him too advanced for preschool. I have never heard of such.

So, we ended up taking Ethian out of preschool and sending him back to his sitter, we figured he would be in school long enough. Ethian was happier with our decision, it meant he could be a kid again. No stress!

Well fast forward to Kindergarten and first grade.....talk about stress, I would have to say I felt terrible for everything my son had to experience in those two years. Once again, we experienced Ethian's advancement in the class, and this lead to behaviour issues because of being bored. When we asked the teachers to give him extra work, we were told, " we have a curriculum to follow and this is not something we can do" What?!?!? so, the school system can make exceptions so "no child is left behind" but if you have an advanced child, they can't change the rules. It was so frustrating as a parent to see my child not enjoying school, being sent to the office and even being put into ISS for being disrupted in class. Are you kidding me?!? ISS for that? When I went to school, ISS was reserved for the children that got into a fight. After speaking to his current teacher, we found out the reason the teacher's did this was because they didn't want to deal with it themselves. You know out of sight, out of mind. Ethian's report card always had comments about his advancements, how he was doing such a great job and was working above grade level, but the teachers never tried to relieve the stress by working with Ethian.

So, this year, we had prepared to experience the same thing as the previous two years. We were going to have to fight yet again for our child. But.....that has yet to happen!!! Mrs. Kenward, Ethian' s second grade teacher, has been the best thing ever! I cannot say enough about what she has done for us and for Ethian. She gets Ethian, and could care less about the curriculum. She has worked with Ethian, by giving him extra work, and actually allowing him to be a kid. She read his school chart and said the only way she will send Ethian to the office is if he hits another child. Oh my goodness, is this teacher for real??!??!!? She is working with Ethian on his level, by challenging him, he has yet to be sent to the office this year, she is allowing him to be a child, she is laid back........wow.....we have found an angel!!! The stress for Ethian and us has been zero...ahh it is like a breath of fresh air . I wish we could have started off Ethian' s school career with her, but hey thank God we finally found her.

Fast-forward back to the testing. They tell us Ethian's testing is going very well! We are told Ethian is enjoying the testing and he's up for the challenge. Funny thing happened last week though.....Ethian was taking one of his test and had 5 minutes left to finish it. He had finished early but he was told to use the whole time to finish the test and check his work. Well, for whatever reason, Ethian decided to erase all his answers on the test. By the " time's up" call he had finished only 5 questions. When we asked why he erased his answers, he said"they told me they were wrong, so I erased them and started over" We found out, no one had told him that, so not really sure who Ethian was talking about. We do know he has an imaginary friend (tiger) that lives in his tummy that he often blames stuff on, but have no idea if this was the case. Thank goodness they made note of this. And may re-test that section!

So, never give up, continue the fight!! I will let you know the outcome of the testing once we receive the results!

What I have been waiting a year for!!!

Yay!! It is finally here, the night I have been waiting a year for. I am so addicted I cannot believe I made it a year without it, but now here it is. What is it you say?? Well, of course it is American Idol!! My son and I actually got to meet a contestant that will be on the show this year. We were at the Keith Urban/Carrie Underwood concert. We were standing outside after the concert and met April Graves. We started talking with her and found out she had auditioned for American Idol and would be on the show. Too cool that we actually "know" someone that will be on the show this year. She had her phone and we were able to listen to some of her music. She has a very good voice. I don't know how far she will make it, but my son and I were impressed, so were some of the other people that were around to hear her sing. So, I am all ready for this season. It should be a good one. They even have new judge!! Oh, talk about exciting.

And in case you are wondering, we did get April Graves's autograph just in case she is the next American Idol :)

What a differece a year makes

Wow, another year has begun. 2008 was filled with many things. We elected a new President, the Olympics happened, we watched gas prices rise and fall and rise and fall....LOL I also experienced some ups and downs in 2008. My son turned 8, he lost several more teeths, and even played his first year of little league baseball. It amazes me that he has grown so much. We as a family grew in the past year too. About this time last year we found out we were going to have a baby. This was a very exciting thing for us as we were told we could never have another child. Our son was filled with excitment, and we were excited too, but we were also very hesitant. We were still in shock that we were going to have another baby. WOW. Well, we started to count down the days, weeks and months before our new little one would arrive. About 14 weeks into the pregnancy, I lost the baby. That was the first feeling I had ever felt. My heart was breaking and I was also trying to figure out how I was going to tell our son that his baby brother or sister had died. I thought about the passing of my uncle, it was the only death that he had really experienced and understood. We told him that the baby had gone to heaven and was with my uncle. He actually was okay with that explanation and seemed to handle it better than I thought for an 8 year old. He gave me a hug and told me everything was going to be okay.
Kids always seem to make a things better, someway, somehow.
About 6 months later we found out we were blessed with being pregnant again. We were very hesitant to tell anyone, especially our son.
It was funny how our son found out we were pregnant again. He was using our bathroom, I had a pregnancy test on the sink and the box was in the trash, he came out and asked me "Mommy, what is this?" and before I could say anything, he said "it says you are going to have a baby" I asked him "how he knew that," and he said" I read the directions."
Gosh, kids are just too dang smart these days.
So, in about 6 weeks or so we will have a new little one in our house. We are so blessed to have this little miracle. So amazing what a year can make isn't it?

The Name Game

Well since this is my first blogg I thought I would make it about something fun. As many of you know, we are expecting our second child. We chose not to find out the sex this time. So we are going through the process of picking out two names. Well, our son has decided he would like to name his sister MaryAlyce Ella....funny because he wants a brother. When we ask him what he would like to name his sister, he says " I don't know" When we give him other options of a sister's name he is very insistant that her name is MaryAlyce. But..........remind you he is having a brother according to him
LOL

How cool it will be to have Ethian name his sister, as for the brother,I guess Mommy and Daddy need to get busy and read the baby name book.