Thursday, November 15, 2012

6 year old worries

Cole is a worrier.  I'm sure I've blogged about this before, but he hasn't grown out of it like I had hoped.  This week is the book fair at school.  They did something new this year called Reach for the Stars.  Each child was supposed to read 20 minutes each night for about 2 weeks.  Each night they filled in a star to show that they had read that day.  They got sponsors and half the money donated went to the school for new library/classroom books.  The other half the kids got to keep in the form of a voucher for the book fair.  If kids did the reading but didn't have sponsors, they still got a $5 voucher.  So each kid that did the reading got at least one book from the book fair.  I thought it was kind of a neat idea.  My boys had some sponsors (thank you grandmas and grandpas and aunts!)  so they had a bit of money to spend.  They had all sorts of neat books and Cole picks out Earthquakes and Tsunamis among other less worrisome titles.  It was a factual book, but every page brought a new round of questions along with "can that happen here?"  Ugh!  I tried to convince him to look for another book, but nope, he wanted THAT one.  I tried reassuring him that we are not going to have earthquakes and tsunamis here, but it couldn't wipe that worried look off his face.  He is the kid that you make sure you don't watch or discuss news around.  I'm still hoping he grows out of it.  Enough to not be afraid, but not enough that he stops caring.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Ears

I've got this kid.  He's a good kid; well-behaved, even-tempered, mild-mannered.  He's the one who's had surgery, broken a leg, broken a shoulder, and now has significant hearing loss in his left ear.  My heart breaks for him.  Thankfully, it appears the hearing loss is treatable, but it's just one more thing he has to go through.  He's just that kid that if something bad is going to happen, it's going to happen to him.

At his normal check up in June, he did not do well on his hearing test, but whether it was from too many distractions or actual hearing loss, we weren't sure.  The free audiology testing is only done during the school year, so I figured we'd wait until school started.  Then cross country started so I figured I'd just wait until I was done coaching to take him in.  At about the time that happened, I got a call from the school nurse saying he didn't pass his hearing test.  So in we went.  The audiologist said his hearing loss is equivalent to wearing an ear plug and holding your hand over that ear.  The funny thing, no one noticed.  He never said anything.  His teacher didn't notice.  I didn't notice.  Talk about making you feel like a bad parent.  How do you not notice your kid is half deaf?!?  We see an ENT at the end of this month.  Pray it's an easy fix and he gets to spend the rest of his years as "normal."

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Dress Up Day

aka, Halloween.

Last year I decided to attempt to make the kids costumes.  I had always bought them before, but the kids were little and didn't care what they were, so I could wait until the last minute and buy them on clearance and choose whatever was left.  Last year I found instructions for making a puffin costume that looked easy enough and Cole was very compliant.  Tate eventually settled on a shark which was easy enough to make also.

This year Cole came home from school in early September informing me that he wanted to be the black ninja because his name was also Cole.  For those of you who aren't parents of elementary aged boys, the black ninja named Cole is from Lego Ninjago.  Tate thought that he could be the red ninja.  Turns out, ninja costumes are super easy.  Red shirt, red pants, red scarf, red stocking had with a slit cut in it, Voila!  Cole even made nunchuks out of twine string and milking inflations.  Tate used the pirate sword he got from the children's museum.  Super easy!

Having a girl is different.  When Cole was a baby, we didn't do Halloween.  Tate was a lion only because we had to bring him along anyway.  That was not going to be good enough for my baby girl.  She needed to be extra cute!  I found an idea for a candy corn costume on pintrest.  It looked simple enough.  The only problem, I couldn't find the right colored material, so I had to dye it. This fabric didn't dye particularly well, but good enough.  Her costume took a lot more time and money than the boys, but she was awfully stinking cute!
2 ninjas and a candy corn

The sweetest candy corn ever!