Looney Bean, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

My DH and the boy just got home from visiting M's parents for a week. Lucky men, the in-laws live in Matazlan, Sinaloa, Mexico for the winter months. They have a two bedroom apartment condo and figured that 7 people plus their dog would be a little much for that space so the boys went this year and the girls and I will go next.
They had a wonderful time. I think a little more down time than M was expecting at the outset, as he is one who wants to be doing things and exploring, but a certain little boy loved the pool and the beach so they spent hours there every day. My little man came home looking a little exhausted from all the sun and fun he got. I am very happy that he enjoyed himself so much.

DH brought home presents - of course! :) - and along with the gorgeous Australian opal and silver bracelet, necklace and earrings I got, he brought me a pound of coffee from a coffee shop they would go to.

After reading the back, I had to look up the website. I have only had an opportunity to read just a little bit about it - going to read more later, but wow! These people are doing an amazing thing. I would love to do something like that. Wish there was something like this when I was younger and single. Because I would never wish I was younger and single because that would be wishing my family away and I love them far too much to wish them away. I am at a different place in my journey, but know of a few young people I would love to send this information to. I will definitely be going to that coffee shop when we girls go next year.
...Just read through the website and it doesn't look like it has been updated in a year. Not sure if they still run either of these missions opportunities anymore. I sent them an email to see, because I am curious. Who knows, maybe we will become friends and next year it'll be like going to visit friends. :)
And in case you were wondering... the coffee is oh, so yummy!

First taste

Celebrating R-A-Roo

My boy is five today. I cannot believe it, time has flown by SO fast. He is such a little man now- all grown up and helpful, caring and loving on his sisters. He is a sensitive boy - asking about others feelings and wanting to know when things are not OK.
He has a HUGE imagination, comes by that honestly. :) Both his father and I have great imaginations. His daddy tells him an ongoing story every night, "reads him a pretend story" as R calls it. R has now started "reading" his sisters "pretend stories" at night too. They are always about animals (or Veggies) who are looking for more friends, who have sleepovers and play together and he acts them out, moving around the room, "sleeping" under the crib as he tells that part. His sisters adore him, copying his movements, jabbering away as if they too are telling the story. I catch looks of adoration on A & K's faces when they look at him and it is so adorable. He is a great big brother. He has different relationships with his two sisters. With K, he watches TV and wrestles. With A, he reads stories and plays imaginary things. It is fun because it affords Mommy and Daddy time with the other girl as he does these things one-on-one with that sister usually. He loves hugging them - sometimes more than they want him to - and helping them along.
His imagination has also provided him with many "pets". We have Chippy the Squirrel, Candy the mouse, Heidi the cat, and the most famous, Dorothy the fish with her parents, grandparents, sisters and her brother Khaki. His whole class at school and anyone he plays with know about Dorothy the fish. She has a great many adventures, with and without Rhys. She comes with us most places, including holidays - sometimes including the rest of her family, sometimes not. Khaki was "pretend fish-sat" by our neighbor M (who sits the kids regularly and has been "introduced" to all his imaginary friends) and she had may stories to tell his about his adventures when we returned. Rover is his other best friend and he is still very attached to him. in fat, Rover has come on more outings lately than he ever did in the past. At school, they get to have a special day about once a month where they bring a show and tell item and R talked about bringing Rover for the entire month. He must've been talking to everyone at school as well, because when the day came yesterday, and his show and tell item was in a box and the kids were to guess, the first question one little boy had was "Is it your brown stuffed dog, Rover?" LOL He is so sweet and enthusiastic, so I guess we named him well. (That is the meaning of his first name.)
He loves his swimming lessons and music class and very much enjoys going to the "church with the ants" on Thursdays with Mommy and the girls (no they do not have an ant problem, but toy ants that are as big as my hand that he was scared with by another small boy last year :) and the "church by Calaway Park" where we go on Sundays. He has started talking about God and singing the songs he is learning and it is amazing all he remembers.
He is a son that I am very proud to call mine. I love him (and his sisters) more than I ever thought possible and cannot imagine life without him. Thank you God, for my R!

First Day of PreKindergarten

R on his first day - boy was he excited! He did so well too, and the anticipation was worse than the actual for this mommy.

Apparently we really cannot make up our minds :)

So R will be going to PreKindergarten this Wednesday for his first day. Yes, I had said before that he would be attending Junior Kindergarten, but when we registered him and she saw his birthdate, she gave us this other option. He will be going three days a week, in with the kindergarten kids, asked to do all the things that the kindergarten kids do, though not graded per se, so if he doesn't want to participate or do them isn't forced to. It'll be like he is auditing kindergarten. And the kindergarten kids who he will be in will will be doing the more "academic" stuff on the two days when he does not attend. Of the afternoon class he will be in - 6 of them will be in pre-K and 12 in K, so a really good ratio. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. And so sad that my little man is now entering a new stage of his life - schooling. And that that is forcing us to enter a new stage - one in which our lives are a little more scheduled and less free to pick up and do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it. He is growing up WAY TOO FAST! I love him so much and cannot believe he will be leaving me this week, in only two days, to be a big boy with a whole life of which I am not a part. OK, I'm going to stop now before I cry. Talk to y'all later.

Jr K

Registered R this morning for junior kindergarten. At a church preschool nonetheless. We weren't looking for a church one specifically and turned out it was our best possible choice and they had room. I am very excited for him, I think he will do good and thrive AND I get to volunteer once a month to help! Yeah for me. Now I gotta find someone to care for the girls while I do... and tell R that schooling has changed a bit... and call the kindergarten \school he was supposed to be in...
Guess all the work isn't done yet. :)

Kindergarten, not yet

I am feeling better about keeping R at home for another year. Part of what makes me feel better is that M and I made the decision for sure this morning. I'll tell you why I have been so stressed about it. Jobina commented on the last post that in MB at least the Kindergarten curriculum has been "dumbed down" so much that going into grade 1 and not having done Kindergarten is OK. I actually have been hearing that here in Calgary the Kindergarten curriculum is closer to the grade 1 curriculum - like kids know how to read and are expected to write "short" stories (one to two sentences) by the end of kindergarten, as well as have math skills and stuff, so not sure if AB is more focused on that or what. Most kids know how to write their name, trace letters, etc before starting K, and our son does not and I never want him to feel like he is not as smart as the other kids who could be almost a whole year older than him.
I spent a lot of today calling around seeing if there are any spots available in a preschool or junior K for him and I found a couple of good schools that he could go to - so I am feeling more relieved and feel like I can actually leave for the next 5 days like I planned to.
Well, off to pack! I'll write more when I get back.

I needed this today...

Today has been really emotional for me so far. I don't think my sleep was very restful. I did not have breakfast. May not help that I am leaving my entire family tomorrow for 5 days. Or the fact that M and I are trying to decide if R will be attending Kindergarten at the end of this month.
That is probably the root of it. My baby, old enough to go to Kindergarten, but still not yet 5. He just doesn't seem ready yet and I am having a hard time not putting that blame on myself. Not that there is blame to put. He is a very smart child, that is not it. We just are trying to figure out if we are doing him the best service to send him to school, on a bus, to be out performed by children who are almost a year older than him in some cases. I do not ever want my child to think that he is not as smart as other kids and I do not want him to be dogged by that his entire schooling, nor do I want him to hate school. Everyone I talk to - friends who have been kindergarten teachers, parents of children born later in the year, Michael's doctor, our parents - have supported what we have said and agreed with the things we asked them about. Now it is just figuring out what we are going to do. Is there a preschool out there that we can send him to that is not full? One that will teach him things, so he will learn and grow and not just have play time?
Aargh - I didn't need another thing on my plate today. I'm busy enough packing and getting my family ready to be without me for 5 days.
I got video forwarded from my mother-in-law today. It helped a bit, though I cried. Watch here.

Wordless Wednesday

Someone was having fun with PhotoBook when Mommy wasn't looking!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday to Rover Doggy!

Apparently - he turned two today! We had a party complete with friends, cupcakes, birthday hats and the traditional song with candle blowing! Oh, what we do to bring a smile to our children's faces. I love the love this boy has for his dog. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Bathtime Fun

For Sale - One Kid...Cute

****Written by my DH and sent to the grandparents and aunties today*****
After leveraging a hacking cough and fever into an excuse to sleep in mommy and daddy’s bed all night (keeping them up) R-a-Roo got up for his morning pee. In spite of multiple instructions to the contraire, this ritual involves a toilet chaser of at least 12 sheets of toilet paper. This morning it wasn’t enough to just back up the toilet, so instead of coming and getting mommy and daddy little mister decides to fix the problem himself. If 12 pieces of toilet paper can plug up a toilet than surely 12 more and another flush can fix the problem. Of course, he has not heard the phrase about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, so he was not aware that repeating this action over and over again probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
Eventually though, after the water had completely overflowed and covered most of the floor of the bathroom did he decide, at the top of his lungs, to call in for backup.
The first words out of his mouth when he saw his bewildered father… “See Dad, the toilet flooded…. Just like at your office.”
Then, after 20 minutes of sitting on his haunches watching mommy and daddy clean up the mess he looks at his mother and says
“Hey Mommy, how is it going with that floor there?”
Included in the purchase is one well loved but worn blankie, a book entitled Farmyard Tales, a container of Yogurt, something orange, and Rover Doggie.

It has begun!

Conversations from today -
R - Uncle M, why is the dog downstairs?
Uncle M - Because he likes being near us.
R - But why is he down here?
Uncle M - Because he wants to know what you are doing.
R - But why?

R - Why do we need to leave Auntie C and Uncle M's house?
Mommy - Because we need to go home to sleep.
R - But I don't need to go to sleep.
Mommy - Well, I like my bed, so we need to go home so I can sleep in it.
R - But why?

R - Mommy, why are we driving in the car-van?
Mommy - Because we are headed home.
R - Why are we going home?
Mommy - Because that is where we live, R, and where our beds are.
R - But why?

Wow, I don't know if I am going to make it through this stage. Think I am going to institute my aunt's "quota game" very shortly. Only so many "whys" before he gets a great big buzzer noise whenever it is used. :)

How does he know?

Tonight after supper, M was standing in the kitchen and leaning against the cupboards and R came up to him and was leaning against his legs, kind of hugging him. M looked down at him and said, "R, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
To which R replied, "Daddy, I'm going to be a Daddy, just like you!"
Both M and I went, "Aaahh, how cute! Isn't he just so sweet?"
How do they know what will melt your heart? And what will make you feel good about the parent that you are?
Such a sweetie, that one.

A Boy and His Dog

For the last year or so, R has been very attached to his stuffed puppy, which was given to him by Auntie J when he was born. He calls the dog Rover Doggy and has to sleep with him, makes up stories for him. At times I have to discipline Rover, because "it wasn't me, it was Rover." In fact Rover has been put in time outs by his pint-sized master more than once. When we were getting together everything for family photos, I had to put Rover Doggy in the bag as well, because if there was an opportunity, I wanted to capture their relationship on film for posterity. Heather did a great job, didn't she?

Wordless Wednesday

My Boys

Everyone always comments on how much R looks like his Daddy. I am sorry people, but I don't see it. I think he has some characteristics, but isn't the spitting image. All my kids have a nice little mixture of both sides of the family and I kinda like it that way. It's nice because then both my family and M's family can claim them all! :)

Updates

For those of you who have an invitation to R's blog, I updated it today - not a whole lot when there is almost a year to update, but I got halfway through July 2008. :)

Wordless Wednesday (a little belated!)