Aaaaah, Saturday! It's so nice not to have to get up early and get the kids out-the-door for school! Yesterday, when the alarm went off, I was so tired that I just turned it off and decided to let the kids stay home. Shocked Within 5 minutes, Alex (7) came into the room and said "Mom, aren't you going to wake me up for school? Laughing It's a good thing I have my kids to keep me in line! I'm glad though that we have turned the corner on the going to school thing. He seems to really enjoy school again and all of his friends are just so funny. A few weeks ago at lunch, one of the boys was playing me a song by...making farting sounds from his underarms. Laughing I have to admit that I sat and listened politely...and was kind of amused. The lunchlady wasn't though and she came and put a stop to it. When she left, the little boy turned to me and told me that this summer he had entered a contest and won "for burping out the alphabet song". Laughing Alex looks so grown up since he turned 7...when my mom told him this, he said "No I don't. I'm little..I'm NOT growing up". He still wants to be the little baby! Maybe that's why he still insists on having me come to school each day for lunch? This has been a fun week. My mom was here visiting until Friday and we pretty much sat around and laughed in our pajamas until noon. The house stayed in disaray, but we had a good time. Amanda (almost 10) developed her first pimple...a serious "I am here, look at me" pimple that pretty much was just leaping off of her face. We ended up even taking a picture of it because it was so impressive! She used some of my cover up to try and mask it and so she pretty much walked around all week with a huge cover-up spot on her nose that attempted to disguise a huge red zit. Poor Amanda! Thankfully for all of us, it's almost gone now! I'm so NOT ready for pubert to hit this house! On a side note, I ran into her teacher yesterday at the elementary school when I was having lunch with Alex. She told me to "bring Amanda" with to conferences next week. Hmmmm. OK...I asked her what was up and she told me "I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell you some things that will make you want to cry". Fabulous! So...I asked for a preview. Basically, she didnt' tell me anything that I don't already know. My daughter is Lazy...lazy, lazy, lazy. She told me that Amanda is an avid reader and absorbs everything she reads...all of her reading comprehension tests (and they take many each week) are spot on...BUT that she doesn' try in any other classes...she is too busy socializing, and sneaking her books under her desk to keep reading. Rolling Eyes The last science test that Amanda brought home was an A+ and we were all so thrilled that we hung it on the refrigerator....then, when I was cleaning up her room the other day, I found 3 more recent tests wadded up...all D's. D. My 4th grader is making Ds in science. The thing is..I don't know how she could have possibly gotten a D. The questions were matching and they were sooo obvious. It was as if she hadn't even read the questions or something. I showed the tests to Thomas and his eyes practically jumped out of his head...."is she...stupid?". We both sat there and pondered the question for a second before I jumped into defensive mommy mode and tried to cover up with a "how can you say that about your daughter" kind of a thing. It turns out that when Amanda takes a math test, she gets an A..and when she turns in her homework assignments, she often gets a C or lower...because the teacher says she doesn't follow directions. The assignment might be "do problems 1-10 in set A, problems 12-20 in set B" etc....and her eyes will jump around and she'll end up mixing in problems from both set A and set B in each problem set. She does them properly, but they are the wrong problems. Again, I was told that she just rushes through her work so that she can draw, read or socialize. Basically, the teacher wants to have Amanda come in so that she can 1. tell her what is good about her and then 2. tell her she is working below her potential and that she is lazy. Did I already say 'Fabulous'! Rolling Eyes I believe in embracing our children where they are at in their lives...but lately, my 'embrace' of Amanda looks more like me ringing her neck than anything else Laughing The best thing this week has been Aidan's potty-train-a-thon. This has been the easiest potty training I've ever been through. If I'm completely honest, my little guy who just turned 7 can still have an..accident... Embarassed once in awhile when he gets too busy playing and doesn't want to take a break. He is of course devastated when it happens, but...it still happens from time-to-time. Aidan (2) just decided he was done with diapers and now he is. We only had one accident all week in his big boy pants and it shocked him so much to get wet that he cried inconsolably. He is so in touch with all of his little bodily functions and cracked us up all week with his announcements of "I farted, I go potty" etc. Last night, he was already in his diaper (I'm not even going to try it with 'big boy pants' in the bed unless...he sleeps on Thomas' side meanie ) and he turned to Thomas and said "I go potty"....so Thomas went in and took him and ....he went. It's amazing...How did we get this lucky? Something else that has really struck me lately is how grown-up Andrew is becoming. He's 11 and he is kind of on the cusp of adolescence....He came home from school one day last week, found me sitting on the sofa chatting with my mom, gave me a kiss on the cheek and asked me how my day was. Shocked He does things like this often. He is always asking how he can help out in the house and taking Aidan to play with him...he is becoming so grown-up and responsible. It is so exciting to watch...and so sad at the same time. We have such interesting conversations now. My little boy is growing up! I'm so proud of him.