Off to Preschool

The first day of school has finally arrived. Both big kids, Isabelle and Barrett, are going to school three days per week from 9-2:30p. Cooper says he's ready to go, but I think I'll keep him at home a little longer. Whatever am I going to do with myself? Cooper, I think will be lost with out his playmates. But somehow we will make it on our own. Just to show you how cute they look going to school and how much crap they have to take with them I of course took some pictures, imagine that. Each day they have to take to school and bring home, a school bag, lunch box and nap mat. Since I do not believe in carrying my children’s items for them they have to be able to carry everything themselves. Day one so far so good, we’ll see how coming home works out.

Just an update on Cooper he is doing great. We have been doing as the dentist instructed and his teeth seem less wiggly. We did go to the office to have him checked out and the dentist said that everything looks good so far, we just have to wait and see if they grab hold back in the gums. But if one happens to be dangling we should just pull it. We will check back with the dentist in a week to see how he is doing.

The teeth accident

This morning has been full of all sorts of craziness. Cooper was playing with one of those pre-walker toys that the kids can stand behind and push around. He really thinks he wants to walk, but does not get very far before he has to go down to his knees and scoot back closer.

Well he was, as babies are known to do, chewing on the steering wheel on front and it has three little triangles. Well one triangle is a little bit bigger than the others and Cooper got a little bit stuck. I heard him cry, I was folding laundry, and walked in to help him out. I was less than two steps away and he got free, which upset him. I proceeded to pick him up and do the usually, he just shake it off. Then I saw the blood.

Which if your kid has ever had a mouth injury before there is a lot of blood, so I check the outside of his mouth quickly, grabbed a wipe and then I noticed that his teeth were all most flat out from his gums. Not a pretty sight and for such young teeth very scary. This is when I started to get worried, I pushed his teeth back as much as I dared and then started to make phone calls.

And of course since I have a crummy phone I had to charge it because it did not have a charge. I called Penny first and left her a message to see if she would come sit with the older two if I had to go anywhere with Cooper. Then I called Ben, he had to work, and told him what happened and to get advise as to who I should call next the Dentist or head to the Emergency room. Well we settled on the Dentist. I had to wait through the entire message before getting the emergency number and then I called that line. I had to leave a message which was ok because I had some more phone calls to make. I was supposed to work in the nursery at church today and since it was about 8:30a I called for a replacement. Fortunately I know one person, Angie, pretty well and she helped me out. Thanks so much I’m not sure I would have made it at the nursery for two hours with Cooper at home with Ben or Penny. I am so grateful.

Penny had called back and said she would be on her way. I again called the Dentist and had a chance to talk to his wife, because he was away at the grocery store. We chatted and talked about our options and made the decision not to take him to the Emergency Room and she would call her husband to see what we should do. I jumped into the shower, I’m pretty sure I smelled funny, and went as fast as possible. She called back and the Dentist decided that we should try to make sure they teeth could settle back into the gums by hold the front and back gums together. Cooper is not a big fan of this or anyone really touching his mouth at the moment. Completely understandable since I would imagine it hurts.

Well this turned out to be a two person job so I had to wait for Ben to get home to help me. Then I also had to wait for Penny to get here with the Infant Tylenol, since I did not have any; a wonder since I have an infant, but we do not do shots so I have not had a need for any. Once we had him drugged up we pushed his gums together for the first time and he cried a lot but was then ready for bed. Everything so far has been pretty good, he is still nursing well, and sucks his thumb well so no worries there. He ate solids well and seems to be doing ok. I do not feel that his teeth are moving around too much, but I still think I will see about getting him into the Dentist on Monday while the kids are at school. I will try to keep you updated on his little teeth condition, and hopefully it will not be as long as this post.

Pictures of Food

Ok, so here is the long and short of it. My friend Anjie found this great blog, cleverly titled I Should be Folding Laundry, where you are challenged to get out there and use your camera. Now some of you are thinking does Allison really need this challenge and I say yes.

So this week the topic is food. I thought how great would it be to go to the Farmer’s Market in downtown Dallas and take pictures of the fresh produce available. That was my subject, now I wanted to go with Ben just to get is take on what we should buy and then I would take my pictures. This also meant going on Saturday. Well he came home on Thursday and said he had to work all weekend so there went his visit to the Market. I already had plans for Friday so I could not go earlier. Anyway, the kids and I went on Saturday and here is the result of our much awaited trip to the Farmer’s Market. Maybe next weeks pictures will not take so long to get up.

Merit based pay

I have never hidden my feeling regarding the public school system in Texas; in most areas I think it is a joke. And those feelings have led me to consider home schooling my children because I feel that the public school system does a disservice to the students because there is too much pressure on test results.

Standardized testing is a necessary evil of the public school system, and a factor that colleges refer to when accepting incoming freshman students. Now Texas has pushed it one step further by rewarding teachers for improved test scores on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test and other factors.

Ultimately it is up to each district who is involved in the program to award the monies distributed to its teachers. And by the way it sounds; everyone could get a bonus if the test scores improve. So instead of actually improving the education, the students are just learning to memorize information that they will be tested on and can regurgitate the information to help increase the over all scores in the area. That to me does not translate to a better education but teaching students how to take tests and forget what they learned.

In my opinion merit based pay should be based on the teachers’ ability to teach the subject and engage the students. After all I think there are those people who teach just so they can have the summer off, and could really care less about what they are doing and whether or not their students learn anything. That does a horrible disservice to students across the board and later in life.

How much is this “bonus” actually going to change how a teach approaches a subject, if they are only getting a one time bonus of $1,000 or a little bit more? Is that worth it to those teachers who fit the criteria and qualify for the program? What amount would get a teacher to change? After all if a regular employee at company XYZ put in the minimal effort and the company overall did better, would the CEO want to award a bonus to that individual for their lack of effort? I do not think so.

Let’s start to improve out educational system by hiring teachers who care about teaching and having the students learn to further enrich their lives. Teachers who want to see the students succeed and continue on in their education to a college level or beyond. Standard tests do not make the entire student as a whole, and are not always the best gauge at a student’s ability. Many other factors are involved and educators across the board should consider this when planning the education of future generations.

The Crawl

At long last Cooper has gotten off his tummy and is crawling on his hands and knees. No more cleaning mommy's floor with his belly. I am very excited, I think he is too.

Stairs

No he has not started to crawl but he has started to climb the stairs. I think my future looks very "Bear like." And here I was hoping for a calm and easy going baby. Who knows maybe after he has conquered everything he will calm down. So that should give me a break when he is about 85.

My little Jackson Pollock

Yesterday I let the kids paint the morning away. Which is always fun, because they just love it and I get to see the changes they make in their artistic skills. Isabelle made some very interesting pieces which she of course must explain as she paints each step. I really enjoyed her Jackson Pollock interpretation, except that we were painting inside and the flinging of paint went a little far. She even did a partial Frieda Kahlo painting, very interesting.

Milk

I came inside to get the camera to take pictures of our garden so far to find Bear immediately saying “I going to clean it up.” My first thought is clean what up. I walk around the end of the island where he more or less leads me to and he repeats, “I going to clean it up, I thirsty.” There is milk all over the floor. Which unfortunately was partly my own fault; I left the milk on a shelf in the fridge where he could easily get it. Except for the fact that the milk was a new gallon and he is not quite strong enough to lift it. So there you have milk all over the floor. I really did not want to mop today but I guess I will have to after all, or at least a little part of the floor.

The new room

And he kicks in the winning goal

Fun stuff for his walls, besides paint

At long last Bear’s room is finally done. At least for right now, after a three week long process, or so it would seem, the paint is all up, the touch ups are finished and the furniture is back. I think he will really enjoy his room after all he picked out the paint colors, and Ben designed the room. My contribution was the soccer ball idea and my mad painting skills. I must say that it looks pretty darn good. What three year old could ask for more? But you be the judge and let me know what you think.

modeled after the Ball Park in Arlington Go Rangers!

This one was just a challenge to take but you get the idea.