Homeschool Progress

Kyrie is in her 2nd semester of Kindergarten. She completed her 2nd grade level Math a couple of weeks ago. She has also finished her 1st grade Phonics/Spelling. All we have left to work on is Language Arts and Science. I've had Kyrie playing on multiplication.com to help improve her memory of multiplication facts. It's amazing the things they do in 2nd grade Math! She was doing things that I don't remember learning until Jr. High and High School- balancing equations, solving for x(or in her case, triangle), Geometry, etc. Next year I imagine she'll be doing differential equations...

Technically, her online school is on Spring Break this week- although, with the snow we're having, it doesn't seem very springy to me. :P We're planning on going on a trip to Seattle at the end of April/beginning of May, so I've been having her do some work this week so we won't have to worry about it on our trip. Ah, the joys of flexibility in homeschooling!

Even Imaginary Friends Need Their Sleep

Kyrie has been having some breathing problems the last couple of nights. Tonight, I gave her some medicine, rubbed Vicks on her chest, and put her to bed. She tried to go to sleep, but came out(while Mark and I were watching Lost, I might add) and complained that she couldn't sleep. I helped her blow her nose and told her to prop herself up on pillows. She came back out about 10 minutes later. I told her she could read some books with the light on, and go to sleep when she was tired.

Another 15 or so minutes go by, and she says she can't read because she can't breathe. So I told her to talk to her Imagination Friends(that's what she calls them).

Kyrie: I can't. They're already asleep. They go to sleep at 8:30.
Me: Then wake them up!
Kyrie: I don't want to wake them up. They need to sleep!

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

This skirt is really adorable, and if you don't win it, she has instructions on how to make it on her blog. Of course, I don't sew, so I really hope to win! ;)

Amy Roloff pictures

Amy Roloff

I had the awesome pleasure of listening to Amy Roloff speak on campus tonight. She's a great woman- very down to earth. She told us about how she was raised. Her parents didn't make any special accommodations for her. She had to learn how to adapt to the big world herself. I was also surprised to hear her say that she didn't like PCness(except, of course, in the case of cruelty towards others). She said people try to say things in the nicest way- often ignoring the elephant in the room.

I'm really thankful that the Disability Awareness Association at WSU was able to bring her in to bring awareness to not just her disability, but to others, too. I was very fortunate to get in. I sat in the third row. They had to turn away a lot of people- even with the good sized auditorium we were seated in. If you've never seen Little People, Big World, you can watch some episodes on TLC.com.

I must say that I was a little annoyed when they turned down the lights and brought her in, and everyone started flashing their cameras while she was speaking. It was really distracting. They had the lights on for the Q and A part, and people were taking pictures then. That was a lot less distracting. I'm sure Amy appreciated being blinded by all the flashes. Maybe she's used to it. You would think they would ask for no flash photography. Another thing that got me was some lady in front, who should have just taken a video of the whole program. She had her camera on to take multiple frames, so all through the program we heard, "Beep. click,click,click. Beep. Click, click, click."

Also, the people behind me chatting the whole time. The guy commenting about how she came to his class and saying,"Oh, this is a good story. She told this one in our class today." Thanks. I'm sure I'd like to be able to listen to her story.

And I guess people need to be reminded all the time to turn their cell phones off. The movie theatres do, so apparently everywhere else needs a big sign to turn off cell phones. Sorry. Big pet peeve of mine.

In other news, Mark got a really nice printer to review:

It's a Lexmark X7675 Professional. It's wireless. I can't wait to try printing out my pictures on it. I still haven't found the USB cord for my camera, but this printer will upload the pictures from the camera card, so there is hope for me yet! I should be posting some old pictures that I've been wanting to share soon!

"Cuh- uter"

At 22 months, Jayden still has a pretty limited vocabulary. He's not "talking" as much as I'd like him to("I have no clue what you are asking me for!"), or as much as all the child development experts say he should. But he does know what he likes.

One of Jayden's favorite things right now is the computer. And he knows how to say it(sort of). He started saying it a couple of days ago, but I wasn't sure if I was hearing right until he did it again the next day and the day after. Anyway, when Jayden leaves the living room, I can be pretty sure I know where I will find him in minutes. He'll be standing up on the office chair, pulling out the keyboard and clicking away. I think I have another future computer geek on my hands.

He's also pretty cute when he's watching us play Wii Fit. He will squat down and then back up-imitating our movements on the board.

All-in-all, he's a sweet little man who loves to blow kisses to everyone and pats you on the back when giving big hugs. I love my Jayden!

Busy Mom Day

Yesterday was a bit more chaotic than usual. Jayden found some crayons and decided to show off his artistic ability by drawing on several walls and the front door.

This is a perfect tool for getting rid of pretty much any stray mark made by small children.

Later on, my kitchen became likened unto this skating rink. I was cooking some platanos earlier, and put the oil back on top of the fridge. I went to the freezer to pull out some ice cream for dessert, and the bottle fell down, lid came off, oil all over the floor. I was trying to keep our dog from licking it up, when my youngest came toddling in and slipped on the oil, bonking his head on the linoleum.
So, I put the dog outside, pulled an ice pack out of the freezer for my poor child's noggin, and when all was calm, I dished out ice cream and started a bath for the oily youngster. I managed to get most of the oil cleaned up off the floor, but it is still a bit slippery. On the other hand, Jayden's hair is very soft and silky!

So that was a few of the events that happened yesterday to make it a very busy mommy day!