Karate Tests

Joe and Ryan Both tested for their next belt in Karate.

Joe was testing to become a full yellow belt. His group went first.

Joe loves taking Karate. He looks forward to going to class and he is always excited to learn the new techniques.



He has even learned to use his skills on the playground and has blocked a few punches headed his way. (This is another story, but we are hoping that said puncher has learned not to mess with Joe. Lucky for us Joe has just blocked and not punched back.)

When Sensei asked Joe what his goals are, he said he wants to be a black belt.

Sensei told him that he would have to work hard for about 5 years to earn that. Joe is fine with that.

Joe did really well on his test, and I could tell he was having a lot of fun.

Especially when they got to the sparring part of the test.

He did great and earned his yellow belt.

Ryan tested in the second group. He was testing for his orange belt.

Ryan is also really enjoying Karate. He and Joe both come home tired but happy.

He did really great too and received his orange belt. He hates it when I take pictures, but I think he looks great!

Karate is a lot of hard work. I didn't realize how much conditioning goes along with it.

Good job guys. I am proud of you. Keep up the good work.

Way To Go Josh

Yesterday at preschool, Josh earned his rocket crown. To earn this special crown he had to be able to recognize all of the letters and know what sounds they make.



Josh is usually my child who hates having his picture taken, but he was pretty proud of himself for earning this award. I am pretty proud of him too.

Way To Go Josh!

Big Girl Bed

I had planned on moving Valerie out of her crib around her second birthday this July. However her talent of climbing was developing too well, and the days of her waiting for us to get her out of her crib were over. She didn't cry when she woke up form her nap, or in the morning, she just climbed out and found us. So to hopefully prevent any trips to the ER from falling out of her crib, we decided it was time for the change.

She has been in her big girl bed for a week and a half now. The first week there was very little sleep for us as we tried to teach her about staying in her bed. She eventually caught on. The first time she slept through the night I figured she was just as tired as we were and couldn't wake up, but the next night she slept all night again, and I knew we had made it.

Valerie loves her new bed. Being the climber that she is, she loves using her step stool to climb onto and off of her bed. During the day she will climb on her bed and look at books. When we first set up her room, we put a small two shelf book case next to her bed. The first day we found her climbing on it and jumping onto her bed. She thought it was great fun and after jumping she would laugh and say "Ah Cool!" So the ER trip may be inevitable, but we are doing our best.

Emily was also excited for this change because she moved to the basement into her own room. It has been a fun change for all of us, and I am glad that it only took a week to train Valerie to stay in bed. Now if we can find a way to get her to stop climbing on everything else before she gets hurt. Any suggestions?

The Fire Station

A friend of mine called last Friday and invited us to go on a tour of the fire station. Knowing that Josh still loves the fire engines I told her we would love to come. Josh was excited to go, but when we got there he suddenly turned shy.



After one of the firemen got dressed in all of his gear he offered to let the kids try the coat and the pants on. The group of kids were all pretty young, but one of the older boys got all dressed up. Josh hid in the back. Valerie was interested in trying on the boots, but she ended up changing her mind too.



Touring the Fire Station was a great outing for a cold February afternoon. I can't wait for the weather to warm up a little so we can get out more.

The Zoo With Grandma

Grandma was here helping Jon and Jenny with their new baby for a few weeks. Due to unforeseen illnesses we didn't get to visit as much as we would have liked to, but the day before my mom left to go home she called and invited us to the zoo. Emily, Joe, and Josh were already at school, but Valerie and I were over our colds, and did not have any plans so we hopped in the car and headed to the Zoo.
This was Valerie's first trip to the zoo, and I was excited to see if she liked it. My Brother Jon and his son Jaxson came too. Valerie was excited to see Grandma and happy to follow Jaxson around.

It is still pretty cold so the Elephants and the Rhino were not outside. I was a little disappointed, but the rest of the animals made up for it. Some of them acted like they had not seen humans for days and were missing the attention. The Gorilla didn't like Jon taking a picture of him. When the flash went off he got really mad and started pounding on the glass.

These monkeys (I don't know what type it is so they are all monkeys) Came into their cage and started jumping around. Jaxson really liked it when this guy started hitting the glass, but Valerie wasn't sure.

The cats were also very active. When we got close to the Tiger exhibit we could hear it growling. It was pacing around it's cage. I think it must have been close to feeding time.

The peacocks were also happy to show off their stuff.

It was a great day at the zoo. Valerie loved getting to see all of the animals, and spend a little more time with Grandma. When the other kids heard about our exciting day, they were really sad they missed it. I will have to take them before the animals get hot and lazy again.

Mr Popular

Joe is in first grade this year, and his biggest worry and stress about school, isn't the work or his grades or even having to be at school all day. The thing he worries about the most is weather or not he is considered cool and popular.




I have to say that I was ready to deal with this when Emily started school, but she never really cared about what was popular. She just likes what she likes and goes on with life oblivious to the popularity contests around her. I really was hoping that this was a trait that my awesome parenting skills had nurtured, but I was only fooling myself. It is a personality trait she was born with. So now to have a boy so into being popular I am not quite sure what to do.

He is not like an average 1st grade boy who will just wear whatever his mom tells him, or whatever is clean whether it matches or not. He carefully picks out his clothes each morning. And if he doesn't find anything he likes, the morning quickly turns into chaos.

He is very much into all of the fads. At the beginning of the year he was obsessed with Silly bands. He wore a stack of them on his arm to school everyday and swapped them with his friends at recess. He knew all the rules about trading and which ones were the best to have.

He does not talk about them quite as much now, but I think there have been some rules made at school about them.

Clothing is very important. Gone are the days I can just pick something up from the store for him and he wears it happily. I noticed the last few times I bought him a shirt it has just sat in his drawer untouched. I like to give the kids a new outfit or two every year for Christmas, but this year because Joe has a very real opinion about what he wears, I ended up bringing him along on the shopping trip. We found some camouflage pants. He was so excited when he saw them. After I bought them we were walking out of the store and Joe turned to me and said, "Finally I will be in style." Never mind the two camo shirts already in his drawer.

When the snow started sticking to the ground this winter, Joe started wearing his boots to school everyday so he could play on the field at recess. (school rule when there is snow on the ground. No boots no field) As it warmed up and the snow has been melting Joe continued to wear his boots.

Then one day Joe was frantically looking for his shoes. his boots were right by the door so I told him to just wear his boots. He then told me that since it has warmed up the other kids have stopped wearing boots and the other day he was the only one wearing boots. "It was embarrassing."

So I helped him find his shoes. A few hours into the school day a snow storm hit.

Being liked and popular is so important to Joe that he also tries to help Josh learn the rules too. The other day Josh was playing with his friends and bossing them around. Joe went in and told him,

"Josh you have to be nice to your friends and play with them when they come over. If you are not nice they will not like you and then they wont be your friend anymore. Then they will tell other kids that you are not nice and then none of the other kids will want to play with you either and you won't have any friends."

The funny thing about all of this is I know Joe has lots of friends, because there is almost always a group of boys over at our house after school, and if they are not over here Joe is at one of their houses, but Joe still seems to be worried about it.




I worry more because of how this affects other parts of his life.



Joe's friend Cooper is in his class. His mom told me that she asked Cooper if he gets to sit by Joe.



He said, "No. Joe is always moving around to different seats. The row he sits on is always getting in trouble for talking and Joe is always having to move."



Hmmmmm

I think I am seeing a pattern here, and it seems to have a lot to do with Joe.




Joe is a great kid. He is very smart and very funny. I don't think he really has to work as hard as he thinks he does to get people to like him.

This week Joe is the VIP in his class. This means that this morning he brought a poster to school and told the class all about the things he likes to do.

So last weekend we picked out the pictures of Joe that were cool enough to be shared and we put together his poster. This morning I got everyone up and ready to go. I told Josh he needed to be ready to go with Joe so we could go see Joe's VIP.

Joe then informed me that in first grade the moms don't come to the VIP and that it would be embarrassing if we came. (I thought first graders liked their moms to come and give them attention)

Much to Joe's embarrassment I packed everyone in the car and we all (meaning Me, Valerie and Josh) headed to the school for Joe's VIP. When we got their I asked the teacher if we could watch. She was happy to have us there and said the parents are welcome to come. So we sat in the corner and waited for it to be VIP time. It did not seem to hurt his cool factor at all to have me there. A few kids asked him why we were there and when he told them they were excited to hear it was Joe's VIP.

Watching Joe struggle with this is very hard for me as his mom. I want to help him see what I see. That he is a smart, funny, nice kid, with a lot of people who like to be around him.

I hope that Joe will eventually figure out what a great kid he is, and that he can just be himself all the time and people will like him. I hope he figures out that being a good person is more important than being popular.

Every now and then I will have to embarrass him a little, because I love him and I want him to know it.

Joe is a VIP to me!

Meeting Violet

In the past two months our family has welcomed three new cousins into it. Unfortunately two of those new cousins live 12 hours away, (Brent and Amy had a boy (T.J.) in Dec, and Ellen and Andy had a boy (Ben) last week.) but luckily the newest girl lives less than an hour from us. So yesterday I took the kids and we went to visit Jon and Jenny, and meet their new baby Violet.

Emily held Violet first. The plan was for Emily to hold Violet while Valerie sat next to her and looked at the baby.


Valerie had other ideas though and was very upset when Emily would not hand over the baby.
Aunt Jenny was happy to let Valerie hold the baby if she wanted to, so we moved Valerie over to the corner of the couch and Uncle Jon set Violet on Valerie's lap.

Valerie quickly started telling us what the baby needed. She needs blanket. Where's Baba.

She is such a good Mama.

After a minute Valerie was satisfied, and let Joe have a turn.

When I got my turn to hold sweet new Violet, Valerie came and sat with me to look at the baby. She liked pointing out that the baby had eyes and a nose and ears. It was so fun to get to go meet Violet and hold a little baby again. Violet's birth weight and height are exactly the same as Valerie's. It is hard to believe she was that small a year and a half ago. They grow so fast.

When we got home Valerie told her dad all about baby Violet.

Thanks for letting us come visit your new little one Jon and Jenny. She is beautiful.