Ice cream (this is from their birthday)
Playing Wii with Curt. He had never played before, so the kids were showing him a thing or two. Xander is hugely in love with this and it's pretty much the only leverage we have over any of them now (the star chart has been decommissioned, we're not really using it anymore).
Grace with her friend Nyah, who lives up the street and is in Xander's class at school. She also happens to take piano lessons from me. We enjoy spending time with her family and she and Grace enjoy playing.
Taking a break while running wild at the indoor playground by the zoo. They have a height limit for the climbing structure, and Xander is 1" under it. This was probably his last time playing here.
They've been back to school since the 9th of January, minus a Monday off for MLK day. Unfortunately, we haven't all been healthy. They've all had one form of a cold or another. Poor Will just coughs all the time. He has been getting so much medicine pumped into him this winter, it just makes me sad. Xander missed two days of school this week. He was pretty sick, fever over 101 for 3 days and lots of phlegm and coughing. His teacher sent home a huge pile of homework with Will on Tuesday and Xander spent 2 hours working on it Tuesday night. But, he got it all done and took the pile back on Wednesday. I was still a little skeptical about sending him on Wednesday, but he perked up and was fine. He was even better today (Thursday) and hopefully is on the tail end of it. Grace even has a runny nose and a cough due to drainage. I'm really pushing the liquids on her, she doesn't drink much and needs to drink more when she's sick.
The kids' report cards came home on Friday. They were all excellent. They got all 3's and 4's in every area. All three of them are testing above grade level in reading. In fact, Will and Grace are reading at about a mid 1st grade level, and Xander is at an early 1st grade level. We're really impressed with how well they are reading. In fact, I've seen them digging out early reader books we've had for a while and having success reading them! They're also checking out books from the library that they know they'll be able to read. They still have homework 2 to 3 times a week, but it is never hard and they do it quickly. I need to scan and post some of the writing they've been bringing home. It is funny and entertaining. Also, Will has a new obsession with the Fantastic Four superheroes and comes home with many drawings he does during free time. They're hilarious. (We made the mistake of letting him watch part of one of the Fantastic Four movies on TV a couple of Saturdays ago. He's been obsessed with them ever since. It probably wasn't the smartest parenting move we've ever made, because neither of us had seen the movie so we had no idea if anything inappropriate would happen. But boy did he like it!)
As I said before, we have 3 kids, one more than others, who LOVE the Wii. Xander would seriously play all day if we let him. As it is, it's pretty much the only motivation/leverage we have on him. After school, I can get him to do pretty much anything if he knows he'll get to play the Wii. It's the only way I've been getting him to practice. Amazing how the little words "You will not play Wii unless you practice" will give a 6 year old a kick in the butt!!! He is his father's son. He love and has an affinity for video games. He really is quite good at them. Using the Wii as leverage also works with Will. He has still been having some trouble with potty accidents (yes, we are still dealing with this!). Mostly he messes his underwear because he doesn't want to stop what he's doing to go to the bathroom. So, it's pretty much on purpose. We've been telling him if he has an accident he can't play Wii for 2 days. His longest streak of no Wii was 4 days. This week, so far, so good. Grace enjoys it, but is the first to get tired (or get her controller taken away for crying unnecessarily.) As Brian says "There's no crying in Wii!!"
We haven't been too busy with extra activities, but they do start swimming lessons this weekend. They're all in the same class, now that they're six. They're excited to go swimming more. We're all registered for soccer starting in March, so those are some things to look forward to.
On a personal note, this is a picture of my friend Dayna and I that we took just a few days ago. She and I have been great friends since I moved to Lincoln, maybe around our junior year of high school (it's been a long friendship - we've been out of high school for 17 years!!!) She's fighting an advanced stage of cervical cancer. She had chemo and radiation over the summer, then some surgery in August and they thought they had it all taken care of. She found out in mid-January that it's spread and has to start treatments again. She really is the best friend anyone could have. She's an amazing person, a great teacher and it just really stinks that bad things happen to good people. She could really use any prayers and good thoughts you can spare. It's going to be a hard road, but she's keeping a positive attitude and I know she appreciates everyong pulling for her. Thanks for your support!!
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