Reading Right Along

Christian has become quite the reader. At least his ability to read is quite prolific for a first grader. He is already in the Advanced Reading group in school. He gets extra books from the library to read at home, but he doesn't seem too interested in reading books as a whole. Once he gets better he might be more interested in books like his Mama was growing up. He does well on his spelling tests and generally gets 100 or more including his two bonus words. He still gets some of his letters and numbers backwards on occasion, but that seems to be improving. He has quite a lot of homework for 1st grade. He usually has 1 homework page, spelling homework and reading decodable books. Depending on his mood he gets most of it done in an hour while we are making dinner. Hopefully this habit sticks with him and he doesn't procrastinate like his father did growing up.

No After Care

Peoria was one of the few schools to stay open on this snowy day. Off Christian went, the first one at before care. There is no after care, so Huts is leaving work early and picking up Christian at 3:30 He will be so happy to see his dad. On another note, Christian is in the advanced reading group and brought home his first book to read. We read it twice, and he did well. He still seemed nervous this morning about reading it. Hopefully, he will remember the story of henry and his dog, Mudge.

Christmas Craze

The holiday season was full of the unexpected. The kids and their mom all got sick at various points. A leak spring and we had to call in the plumber. The tire went flat on the car and we had to get a new one. In between all of this was loads of present opening. Ollie got a ton of Legos, Transformers and Bakugans. He also got some marble machines and other stuff. The only thing he didn't get is some Lego set that the Easter bunny must now find.

The Good Big Brother

Ollie received a $100 gift card from Toys R Us for being the top candy seller in his school, and guess what he did with it. He shared it with his sister. That was the first thing he said he was going to do, and Tori got a doll, while Ollie got some Legos and Bionicles. What a nice big brother. Way to go, Mom, Dad and Aunt Annie, for doing all of the selling.

Missing His Sister

Christian realized this week how much he misses his little sister when she's gone. She went to visit Cassy and Courtney in Cape for 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. Christian is a bit bored without her since he has no one to play with. Eli isn't old enough to play anything organized. The only thing he is good at is pushing buttons...usually on the TV while Christian is watching a movie!

This usually causes a cry for "help" from Christian. We than have to move Christian into our room to watch his movie and shut the door so Eli can't get in there and mess with the TV. Only another week and he'll get his sister back.


He has benefited from her being gone. He has gotten to wrestle me by himself (with Eli's help). He get to go see Fantastic Mr. Fox this weekend and he's been able to choose some of the meals we eat at dinner. He's also gotten to stay up later than usual. He can handle getting up at the same time each morning for school when he goes to sleep at 9 instead of 8:30. He's pretty much become self sufficient other than washing himself in the bath. Maybe in a year or two.

Update: No Fantastic Mr. Fox. Christian changed his mind. What a pain.

Grandma is Here

Grandma Vickie arrived on Sunday, and the kids have kept her busy. She went to Grandparents Day at Christian's school. He saw her immediately and told his teacher his grandma was there. She went to his room to help him with a picture of the two of them together. She picked him up from school and he grinned from ear to ear when he saw her. Tomorrow he gets to stay home with her and his sister! Tonight we're letting them stay up late, so they will sleep in tomorrow before their cousins arrive. It's crazy-crazy at the Ericksons.

Gobble Gobble

Christian is our little turkey. He has been gobbling for weeks. Spelling "turkey," on the other hand, is giving him problems. He forgets the vowels every time. He's got all of this other spelling words down pat, and will be moving into an advanced reading group soon.

Halloween Capers

Christian dressed up as Darth Vader but pooped out quick. We run five or six doorbells before he said he was too cold to go on. Good thing he did a lot of trick-or-treating the previous day at my work. I offered to layer him, but he was done. Tori, on the other hand,…

Beetlejuice

Christian played with beetles, and bingo, he got some red spots. It took us a while to figure out the probable cause of the spots. He has been letting too many beetles crawl all over him. Calamine seems to be doing the trick, though there did appear to be one new bump this morning. Keep your fingers crossed he does not inherit the allergic tendencies on my side of the family.

Mr. Crabs

Yesterday, we planned on eating at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. Christian was extremely excited because he has found a love of Shrimp! Every place we go that has shrimp, he orders it. Unfortunately for him, things changed mid-day and to celebrate his Aunt's Annie's birthday, she chose to go to Pizza Inn instead. Christian was not happy with this development at all. So much so that he started crying and refused to get out of the car. Eventually, he was forced out, but he kept crying and burying his face in his arms. Half way through dinner, I forced him to get out from underneath the table so he could help me get more pizza since carrying anything and crutches don't mix. He held the plate above his head while he continued to cover his eyes. I was hoping that would get him interested in eating, but it didn't work. Eventually Eli threw a fit, Christian joined his brother and Mom outside. About the time everyone finished eating Christian calmed down enough to come back in and eat. So I sat with him while he ate cheeseburger pizza (with a pickle on it), spaghetti, pineapples and desert pizza while everyone else waited outside. After he ate he was fine for the rest of the night. We found out later that he was upset because he didn't get to have shrimp. We promised him we'd go this weekend when we had time. Apparently shrimp is that important!