A Little of This and a Little of That

Yes - It's been a while since my last blog. An unfortunate case of almost-pneumonia and then a nasty reaction to the antibiotic prescribed for the almost-pneumonia laid me low for a bit, but thankfully I seem to be on the mend now.

The weather has been lovely the past few days - cool but with plenty of sunshine. Iraq had a swim lesson yesterday and did quite well. The Skink enjoyed playing at the on-site child care center during the lesson. Iraq likes to play in the pool following the lesson. It can be very difficult to get her OUT of the pool (especially if I am not in the pool with her) but I have learned that giving her ample and regular warnings about how much time she has left to play works wonders! I generally start with a 10 minute warning, then do a 5 minute, 3 minute and 1 minute warning. I was thrilled yesterday when she got right out without a complaint when her time was up.

All three kids got their report cards this last week. Though Broadway had started the grading period in high style, he finished with one A, a flock of C's and one F. It seems the problem arose when he went to spend Passover with his paternal grandparents. I had contacted each of his teachers a week prior to his departure to ask them to make sure Broadway had all the work he would be missing at school during his trip. He brought it all home, but somehow left his entire book bag in his room when he left for his grandparents house. Grrrr... That kind of thing is VERY common for kids with ADHD. In the same way, many times in the past he has completed all his homework only to forget to take it to school and turn it in. He's quite intelligent - he's just not organized and can be very "scattered."

Now we're making him write down all his homework assignments and have the teachers initial it each day. Keep your fingers crossed that we see his consistency levels rise :o)

Iraq got 3 A's and 3 B's. Not too shabby. As a reward, she got to pick where we went to dinner on Friday night. She chose IHOP - - a GREAT choice considering kids eat free at dinner time! What a smart kid!!

The Skink also brought home a report card. It was basically a great heap of papers bearing an uncanny resemblance to her IEP. Most of the listed skills were marked with "Satisfactory" marks, a few were marked as "Mastered" and 3 - 4 were labeled "Insufficient." "Insufficient" is like Fail, I suppose, but I have to laugh that someone would give a 3-year-old failing grades. Now let's see... She received "Insufficient" marks in the following skills:
- The Skink will match primary colors "red, blue, green, yellow" after sorting has been demonstrated by an adult, 3 out of 5 times by 3/15/2011.
- The Skink will walk throughout a crowded classroom with no more than 2 falls each day while maneuvering around objects in her path by 3/15/2011. (Really?? She's not allowed to fall more than 2ce a day... and someone is going to watch her for the purpose of counting her falls??)
AND... much to my artistic chagrin, she apparently "failed" in the "purposeful" scribbling with crayons department - LOL!

I'm really not worried... I'll bet by the time she goes to college she'll know how to draw with crayons and walk through a crowded room without falling.

In light of The Skink's grades, she got to accompany us to IHOP, where she asked for, "Bacon, pancake, egg!" She devoured her entire meal as did big sister Iraq. Broadway was not excluded from the dinner, of course... he ordered steak!

I should also mention that I haven't killed Iraq's garden yet. I have discovered that peas don't like a lot of direct sunlight or heat, so they are now residing on the shady front porch. Our strawberry plant has a flower, and we're growing some of our tomatoes upside-down just for the heck of it! To avoid pests (and hopefully the use of pesticides) we are growing a number of veggies in containers, but we did put the cantaloupe plants, lettuce plants and some of the great number of tomatoes that sprouted, in the ground.

Here are some pics of a few of the things we've had "growing on" lately.

Peas:

Strawberries:

Upside-down tomatoes:

So... we'll see what happens. I'm just hoping we get a few edible tomatoes and veggies for Iraq to feel proud of.

Have a great day!!