Therapy

I have never been so excited to find out something is wrong with Cole.

Cole will turn 8 in June.  He still won't ride a bike and can't swing himself on the swing.  I get frustrated and he gets frustrated and shuts down.  When Shelby was in for her checkup (she's 2! and I'll get to her birthday post before she turns 3), I asked our doctor about some of Cole's issues.  She suggested we take him in for a short assessment, aka free, by a physical therapist.  I checked with his PE teacher at school, but wasn't hopeful he would notice anything, he didn't, and I wasn't hopeful the PT would notice anything either.  Cole tends to be anything but text book and I figured he has learned to compensate with other things so well that the same would be true with this latest issue.

He had his PT assessment today.  I explained to the therapist about his ear and what's been going on.  He looked at me and says "he has a vestibular impairment.  That was my specialty."  I think my mouth hit the floor.  He ran the assessments and wouldn't you know it, my boy is a text book case.  The even better news: they can fix it!  We start after Easter.  Here's to a summer riding bikes on 2 wheels and swinging!

Potty Training and Trimming Nails

Those are 2 of the things I dislike the most about having kids.  My kids are finally getting to the age where they can sit still to have their nails trimmed.  Shelby only because if her brothers do it, she must do it.

Unfortunately, that mentality is also following her into potty training.  I've been trying to capture a picture of her, but have been unsuccessful so far.  She walks into the bathroom, closes the door, lifts up the potty seat, lifts up her shirt, sticks her belly out, and says "potty".  Since she doesn't have "that" body part, I think she thinks it's her belly button.  She'll tell me "potty" once in a while and I try to sit her on it when she does that, but other than a few toots, we've been unsuccessful.  I'm in no rush.  I've learned twice that you can't force it.  The fact that she's interested already is a major improvement.  She's a full year ahead of either of her brothers in that department.

March Madness

I introduced Cole to the world of college basketball this year.  Okay, only to the NCAA tournament and only because the Bison made it in.  I remember filling out brackets every year and losing horribly to my dad.  I always had a thing for the underdog, but in the long run it doesn't pan out so well.  I thought this year Cole would be old enough to understand what's going on and since the Bison were playing, he'd enjoy following along.  So far, so good.  He's getting into it a little more.  Our brackets don't look too bad, except he picked Ohio to make it to the Elite Eight.  Oops.  I kind of a like having an older kid who can do these things with me.

Friday's Picture Post

We've had a busy couple of weeks.  I'm working on my addiction to time wasters (namely the iPad).  So one afternoon Tate wanted help with his Lego building and I obliged.  We were close to finishing when he told me I could go lay down if I wanted to or do something else.  I said no, I could finish helping him.  A few minutes later he told me he was going to go have a rest :).  At any rate, here is his Lego hotel, which has now been transformed into something else.

 Last weekend, my sister and her family traveled up to get their new puppy.  One of my CC runners breeds her golden retriever and she had her batch of puppies just before Christmas.  Shelby thought he was great as long as he wasn't in her face.

 Even Juno got some loving.

Shelby also really liked his play yard.  The puppy, not so much.

 We've also been out enjoying the last few nice days before winter reared her ugly head, again.

 There were plenty of snowballs thrown,

 and Cole even built a snowman.

We also managed to find time to finish his 40 books so he joined the Super Reader club at school.

The Milk Debate

Look at this!  4 days in a row!

Anywhoodle, since Shelby is not yet 2, and she's tiny, she is on whole milk.  She goes through a lot of milk so instead of buying 2 kinds, I switched us all to whole milk.  We were going through over 3 gallons every 2 weeks.  It got to the point where I finally stopped and asked myself why I am buying milk.  So I stopped buying milk.  We've gone to tank milk and I'm wondering why it took me so long to do this.  The taste!  Oh my goodness!  If you haven't had milk straight from the tank, you are missing out.  There is so much flavor!  We have a plate cooler, and our milk is constantly agitated, so the milk comes out mixed and ice cold, no shaking involved.  I fill a gallon jug about every other day.  It certainly saves on trips to the store and money.

Catch Up, Again

So the last 5 months...

• I finished cross country in October.  I took a group of my runners to watch the state meet.  That was fun.  I miss being part of that.  
• Harvest was not fabulous.  It got done, but that was about all that was positive about it.  
• Tate is exhausted all the time, which is causing us some worry.  I'm hoping it's just that he's growing, but he will willingly nap.  What 5 year old does that?
• Shelby refuses to nap.  She is going to be trouble.  She now has a mouth full of teeth and talks all the time.

• Thanksgiving was spent with my family in Iowa.  This kids love being together and we had a good time.
• Christmas was low key and spent at home.  Cole did a great job with his lines in the Sunday School program and Tate sang his heart out.

• In January, Pat and I travelled to Frisco, TX, to watch NDSU win their 3rd straight national championship.  We had an absolute blast.  It helped that it was in the 60s on game day. :)

• Cole started piano lessons when school resumed.  Two of his 4 lessons have been cancelled or rescheduled due to weather.  I am tried of cold.

• While we were in Texas, the boys were introduced to MineCraft.  If anyone understands this game and can explain it to me, I am all ears.  Otherwise, my typical response is glazed eyes and feeling ready to explode with "I don't care!"  I just don't get it.

 And there you have the highlights since September.  3 blog posts in 1 week!

I Love to Read

**Disclaimer:  I love to read.  I enjoy reading and I want my kids to enjoy reading.  Do not read this post thinking I am against reading in any way.

February is I love to read month.  I hate it.  I love reading, I hate all the work that comes with February.  Our school does some fantastic reading things with the kids, but they all come to a head in February.  

They do One School, One Book which means the entire elementary, pre-k through 6, staff, custodians, bus drivers, cooks, everyone reads the same book.  We read one chapter a night until the book is finished.  Every morning they get a question to answer about what was read the night before.  It's a great program.  The problem, they also do Fast Start Reading, and the first grade is doing a super reader's squad challenge (40 books in February).  That means, on top of the chapter every night, he has a poem to read, his guided reading homework, and the books for the reading squad.  That's on top of the library books we have to read and Cole's piano practice.  That's a lot of reading to do between the hours of 4 and 8, if there is nothing else going on.  Cole likes to read and he's good at reading, but it's a lot.  We already dropped the ball with the One School book.  We forgot that last night so I read it to them over breakfast.  At least it's cold and no one wants to be outside.