TJ has "projects" that his 1st grade teacher is requiring each student to do every two weeks. They can work in groups or alone. His first group project was a bit stressful for him, because some of his partners were not doing their share. Hmmm, sounds a bit real world to me. We had to really work on ways that he could help facilitate better participation in the group. He insisted that I write Mrs. Gaylord a note to tell her the issue (which of course I refused to do) but we did talk about how he could approach her as well to tell him his concerns. In the end, he felt good about his presentation, and Mrs. Gaylord told him he had done a fine job.
The second round, TJ decided to do the project on his own. His topic was Abraham Lincoln. Over the course of the last week, we kept asking him if he needed any help, but he insisted that he was almost done and ready to present it to the class. On Wednesday, however, he came home and said he wanted to do a video and he wanted to show it to the class. When I asked about the "video" and how we would get it to school, he said his teacher told them "your parents will know how." Hmmm....email? Disc? TJ came back later and told me we could use "one of those little things you put in the back of the computer." Flash drive? I promptly went out and purchased one the next day, and right after school I plopped Mikayla in front of the TV (do what ya gotta do) and we got to work. For 45 min, we took images of Abraham Lincoln from the internet and Googled certain facts to include. TJ was so excited and so proud. Thank goodness I have basic Power Point skills. He probably practiced 15 times. He checked about 10 times the next morning that his flash drive was in his backpack.
Then, the debrief that night. Mrs Gaylord said his presentation was "awesome." I asked him what kind of questions the class asked him in the Q and A. One kid asked "how come you don't have the computer reading the presentation for you?" TJ evidently replied, "because my mom didn't know how to do that." Yikes! Maybe I need to take a Power Point tutorial. And anyway, if the presentation does the talking, then what about TJ learning to talk in front of the class? In any case, a learning experience for us all, and I just can't believe what these kids are being asked to do in the first grade, and the technology they are exposed to.
Mikayla is so talkative these days it is hard to keep up. She will repeat anything the boys say, like "pee" and "poop" most certainly. If I gasp at anything, she says "What mom?" (Not "mommy.) She says "Cool dude!" And she is constantly asking "Y Macy? Y Macy" (Where is Macy?) It is the first thing she says when she gets up in the morning, and the last thing when she is going to bed. Sometimes, she will go down the whole list. "Y Mimi? Y Daddy? Y TJ? Y Doggie? Y Macy? Y Mama?" Of course, I am standing right there, so that is when her sense of humor shines through.
We took Mikayla's crib out over the weekend. When she goes to bed, she unfortunately likes to take all the books off the shelf
that we just moved in there, along with the glider. I can hear them pounding to the floor from my room. A couple of times she must have gotten tired reading her books, because it appears that she ended up sleeping on the floor for her whole nap!
She is also in to everything! Yesterday reminded me why I feel like I can't get anything done these days. I was in my room for 2 min. trying to make a phone call to return some items. When I came out, this is what I found. On the carpet is cornstarch, and on the hardwood floor is Boudreaux's Butt Paste...the really thick kind that is hard to wipe off your hands!
Additionally, there was a trail of cornstarch all the way to the trash in the kitchen, where she had evidently tried to throw the cornstarch away. Within the next hour, she got into the markers and wrote on her hands and bit off the marker tips (while Luka was working on his art project and I was going to the bathroom). She pulled all of the plastic grocery sacs out from under the kitchen sink, she spilled her smoothie all over the table and her, and she crawled up on the chair at the kitchen table and spilled a cup of water, and in the two seconds it took to get a towel, she had used her hand to push it all over the table and onto the floor. When I tried to allow her to help make the cornbread, she dropped a huge glob of cornbread mix onto her foot while I was getting out the baking dish. I think I cleaned up about 6 messes in the course of 2 hours. No wonder my house always looks trashed. I told Scott yesterday that I could spend all of my time each day cleaning in the kitchen and picking up the house, and it still looks like a tornado hit it at the end of the day.
This is a very familiar scene. Rarely does Mikayla go anywhere without her "agua" and "nack." And, as a side note, she seems to love hats. I am loving them too, because it covers up the unruly hair in a cute way!
On to Luka, who is spelling words these days instead of speaking them. The other morning he crawled out of bed and the first words out of his mouth were "Mommy, I have g-o-o-d-n-e-w-s!" Evidently, another piece of his broken toenail had come loose. When you ask him a question, he often replies "y-e-s!" When I asked him the other day if he wanted a whole or a half sandwich he replied "h-o-l-e." When I questioned him on that one, he replied "I mean h-a-silent l-f."
While Luka still loves piano and the constant challenge of new songs each week, he also really looks forward to his T-ball practice and games each Saturday. He is one of the oldest kids this year, so I think that gives him a confidence boost. All the other parents have to stand out in the outfield to help their kids, (been there done that) but we can just sit on the sidelines and "enjoy" the game, as much as we can with a two-year old running around.
And finally, here is a preview of our spring break trip next week to McKinney State Falls park, just outside of Austin. We will camp there for 3 nights, and hope to get into the city each day. It has been awhile since we have been to Austin, so we're excited to go back. And I'm excited to have a refrigerator and "kitchen" while we are camping! The camper is a Starcraft, made in Topeka, IN. Small world.
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