Zachary and School

We had the meeting today with the people from Zacharys school. Mike and I have really had a hard time deciding if Zachary should be held back or not. Most of the papers he brings home are S (satisfactory) or S- (below satisfactory). Rarely does he bring home a N (needs improvement). We know he is behind on his reading, but we have him in tutoring 2 hours a week and that has really helped him. Do you hold a child back because he is slightly behind? Or do you work extra with him and bring him up to speed? We walked into the office and not only was his teacher there, but so was his speech therapist, his guidance counselor, the school psychologist, and a resource specialist(?). We immediately felt like we were being ganged up on. However we got a pleasant surprise. We got a bunch of paperwork handed to us. Listed was every type of speech, language, comprehension, hearing, vision, vocabulary and etc testing that they had done on him. We definitely know where and why he is having such difficulty. It all relates to his speech and language. His Non Verbal IQ is 139. (90-109 avg 110-119 high avg 120-129 Superior 130+ Very superior.) His Verbal was 120. Obviously we are talking about a very bright child. So whats the problem?? Its his comprehension of Language. He says things like "that ball is more big than the other ball." Rather than say BIGGER. He doesn't say past tense words he uses present tense. "I sleep all night last night." Rather than SLEPT. He has difficulty retelling storys that he just read. In his writing he writes short simple sentences with spelling matching his speech difficulties. He has trouble articulating which is impeding his reading and writing success. All of these are fixable! Starting tomorrow he is attending a Language class for 2 days a week for an hour each day. There will only be one other girl in there. He will need to be in there next year as well. So that means they are not yet willing to assume he will need to repeat! Nothing of course is certain yet, but his teacher said several times that Zachary has really improved these last 4 weeks that he has been in tutoring. It seems now that he is reading a little better, he is more interested in reading. So I have some ideas to help him here at home. All is not lost! We are not giving in yet!

Dinosaurs, Cats and Sushi

The other evening the boys were on the floor in the family playing with their Rocket Ship set they got at the Space Center. Mike was flipping channels and came across the Jurassic Park movie. Of course they start yelling, "stop it here daddy, we want to watch that dinosaur movie. We wont be scared, we already saw it at Uncle Owiees." (thanks bro) So we went ahead and left it on the movie. Within minutes Zachary got up, went into the playroom and grabbed his 2 dinosaur toys, a big green truck, and several dolls. He gave Caleb a dinosaur, and put the people in the truck and they both attacked the people with their dinosaurs. It just happened to be at the same part as in the movie where the kids and guys in the green jeep get attacked by the T-Rex. It was cracking us up!

Then while Zachary was attacking the people and the truck, Caleb started having his dino attack the jets and rocket ships. I don't think Mike and I watched the movie, we were too busy cracking up and watching the boys play. What fun they had! Mikey is SUCH the handy man! Our speakers were out in the Durango (it couldn't possibly be due to the loud music I listen to right?) So instead of taking it in and having someone else do it, costing several hundred dollars, he went to Best Buy and bought speakers for $35. Since they weren't 'Durango' ones, he couldn't just take out the old ones and plug in the new ones. So he drilled holes in the plates and put in screws with some special glue and fit them in himself! He is always amazing me with how he can fix almost anything he wants and is so creative about it as well. YOU ROCK MIKEY!! (and now I can rock out again! Thanks honey!)

Christina gave both cats a shower the other night. Don't they look so pleased? Mikey and I went out on Date Night a few nights ago. We went to our favorite local Sushi place. This is a baby octopus. He was yummy! This was our dessert. Extra shrimp heads and sea urchin. I don't think we had ordered the urchin before because it didn't look familiar to us. Oh wait, yes it did. It looked like cat throw up. Actually took us a min to decide to eat it! But it was pretty good. Christina has her modeling Expo tomorrow that I am taking her to, and Mikey plans on finally putting up the trampoline. We hadn't put it up since we weren't sure on what our plans with this house would be. We have decided to stay here at least one more year. Since I doubt the market will turn around enough for us to sell our house and buy/build what we want here. We probably have 2 more years here. We love our neighborhood and all the kids' close friends live nearby. Might as well get the trampoline up, and put in a small putting green for Caleb. We can do a few things that we want, as long as we can put it back the way it was. Which wont be a problem. You can buy sod anywhere! And I am going to continue adding to my garden. I have a tomato plant, rosemary, basil, catnip, mint, and parsley so far. They are doing good so far!

2nd Half of Mom and Dads Visit

Well, I still don't have pictures of us at Disney World.

So what I did was download a few pictures so you'd get an idea of the rides we went on.

Here is a web page if you are interested in seeing the rides in animation. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/parkLanding?id=AKLandingPage

I think the kids really enjoyed the Animal Kingdom at Disney World.

Christina, my mom and I had been there in 2006. Although we didn't do everything then, we had an idea of what we should do.

I think we got to do most of the rides and attractions that we wanted to. Of course, just like any theme park it really is a multiple day experience.

The day didn't start as well as I would of liked. First, Mike took a very very long route to get there instead of going by the GPS way which was about 1/2 the amount of time.

So I wasn't too happy.

Then when we got there we met up with my dads first cousin Mel Jr. He works at the boat rides in between the parks. (there are 4 parks) When we had talked to him earlier in the week he said he could get us only 3 free park hopper passes. So I went online and got Florida Resident price tickets for the of us left. A pretty decent deal right?

So we meet him and he introduces us to his friend who has 4 free passes.

**Sigh**

Since I'd already paid, we went to Will Call and picked up our tickets. It was only AFTER that that I got to thinking... "those tickets were good for a year... we could of used the free passes today, and then came again another time, two days for the price of one.." Oh well what are you going to do??

(just for the record..Mike and Dad played golf on Tuesday with Jr and he felt bad he didn't let us know ahead of time that he could probably arrange it with a friend to get us all in for free, so he told them that anytime we want to come back he could definitely get us all in for free)

The first thing we did was see The Lion King Show. It was a neat musical, but probably went on about 10 minutes too long for the boys. They enjoyed it, but both said it took too long.

We got out of the show only to discover it was raining. Raining pretty good too. Mike had packed 3 raincovers for us, so mom and dad went inside a store to buy 4 more while we waited outside under cover. After they stood in line for about 20 minutes, mom came outside and noticed it wasn't really raining anymore, so we decided to brave it, and go get some lunch. I am glad she did because it didn't rain again. Although we did buy some later for the water ride.

We had lunch in a nice buffet style restaurant, then went to the Safari Ride. This is a ride with a big 'jeep' that takes you thru several different landscape terrains, all with different wild animals. Some up very close. (boohoo, I had such great pictures) There were lions and giraffes, hippos, rhinos, deer, wildebeest, and lots of other animals you'd think you might find in a jungle. Very neat!

We also went on a 'white water rafting ride' where it seats 10 people in a big circle and you spin around and down in fast moving water. We wore our raincovers but still managed to get wet. Maybe thats because we went on it twice? (no lines!!)

AT least it was a warm day.

Mount Everest was the only ride that Caleb was too little to go on, but not Zachary. I really didn't think he'd want to go on it. Boy was I ever wrong!

Not only did he go on it once, but 3 times!! We got to go again due to 'babyswap' and then I got free fast pass tickets so we went again!! He loved it!! I bet he would of got on it all day long! I just showed him these pictures and he is jumping up and down saying "I want to go again! That was sooo fun!!" Mind you, this is a high speed coaster! He's soo brave!!

After that was DinoLand.

Its not really a coaster, but it moves fairly fast and shakes you around when the "T-Rex" is chasing you. Caleb was big enough for this, so he went on it. But he says he doesn't want to go again. I have to give that kid credit, he will try it once, then if he says "NO", we respect that and don't make him do it again.

At this point they are used to seeing bones and etc, so it didn't really bother them.

This park closed at 9 so we were headed back to Epcot (where we parked) for dinner. When I booked our tickets I checked the time and it said 12am closing (it still says it, I just checked) We got there a few minutes after 9 and it was closed too!!! What!!?? Well its only THE MAGIC KINGDOM that is open till midnight. AHHH!! We hadn't eaten since lunch, and the car was a good distance walk. Thank God they let us in the gate so we could walk to the resort where we had parked our car. (for free by the way! I have learned if a park has a resort to try and park there because you might not have to pay the 11$ charge for parking!) By the time we got to the car we were exhausted and fell asleep. I'm so glad Mikey is a night owl and not easily tired out.

On Monday we went to the Kennedy Space Center. Actually we went there Monday and Tuesday. We bought annual tickets, and they stamped mom and dads for a free day. This is where I broke my phone. Apparently the battery had died in it, and they couldn't be sure it wasn't a bomb, and neither Mike nor I could get the cover off. I said the only time it has ever come off is when it is dropped. So I dropped it. Of course, it broke in half. He figured it must not be a bomb or I wouldn't of done that, but now I have a useless phone and no pictures. :( We were supposed to come here on Saturday, but since that didn't work out we were really glad we got to come on Monday instead. It was a Rocket Launch Day!! That was very cool to see so close. We were as close as they let 'civilians' get. This place is very neat. Everyone should see it at least once. I wonder how the Space Shuttle program being closed in 2010 will affect this place? The boys got some rocket toys and have been playing with them almost non stop. Maybe they will grow up to be Rocket Scientists? Caleb was in heaven with all the Jets and Rockets around! At least Mike brought his phone and was able to take some good pictures!

Mike and Dad played golf Tuesday at a Disney Golf Course that was something like 200 a person. But Jr played with them and got them discounts so it was only 45 a person. Mike said that although the course was really nice, he could never see paying 200 to play there. Wed Mom and Dad flew home. :( We miss them. Although the boys were happy to have their playroom back, and I was happy not to have their toys spread all over the house. I'm already looking forward to the next time they come to visit us. And anyone else that wants to come!! Its was so great having them here and visiting with them. Thanks for coming out Mom and Dad!! We loved having you here!!!!