Tag Archives: Lex

Workbook pages

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The daycare gave me a few of the workbook pages that Lex did there recently and this one caught my eye. What I first noticed is that he wrote his last name, something I hadn’t seen before. Then the note at the bottom made me laugh. I’m pretty sure Eve would have no trouble with this assignment.

Lex's daycare assignment

Lex's daycare assignment

Along those same lines, they are doing “color days” at preschool and we got a letter home asking that he wear specific colors on specific days. I presume this is to help them learn colors. Sounds like fun, right? I got down Lex’s calendar to write the colors on the days and he sat next to me and read the letter to me. This struck me as funny, I was writing down the days they will be learning “red” and he was reading the whole letter to me, days, dates, colors, etc.

I think we will be experiencing this for much of Lex’s academic career. :)

An apple-a-rific day

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Lex went on his first field trip today! To the apple orchard! He was so excited. I was so excited for him. I was also a little (just a little) but sad because it’s a milestone that I wasn’t really able to join him in (and take pictures of!) Together with the kindergarten class, they took the bus to a local apple orchard, picked apples, had a snack there (apples, of course!) and came home.

At breakfast this morning I told Lex that I wanted to go over some bus safety rules with him since it would be the first time he’s even ridden on a bus. He started the conversation with all of the things his teacher had already told him! Which pretty much covered what I had in mind and then some! Sit still, wear a seatbelt if it’s available (apparently not all of the buses have them), don’t stand up until the teacher or bus driver says it’s ok, etc. I was happy to hear that they had already reviewed that in class, probably more than once because Lex had them memorized. When I picked him up after school he told me that when the bus went down a big hill he slid out of his seat, but he got back in quickly when his teacher told him to. Visualizing that made me giggle :)

Lex came home with 10 apples and said he ate one for snack. He told me at breakfast that he was going to have an apple-a-rific snack at the orchard. Silly boy. He doesn’t eat apples often these days, but he told me all about the one he ate today and what he did with the apple core (there was a lady standing there with big red bag and we put our apple cores in the big red bag) so I’m inclined to believe him. Any day that he eats an apple is a good day.

Then he said he wanted to make an apple pie with his apples (a boy after his daddy’s heart!) so we spent the afternoon (between not napping and visits from family) making apple pie. I didn’t have any handy-dandy Pillsbury crust on hand so I did it the old fashioned way. The final pie looks beautiful and Alan says it tastes amazing! I’m pretty sure I’ll be having a piece in just a few minutes :)

An apple-a-rific day!

An apple-a-rific day!

L E X

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L E X

The other day Lex said, “Mommy, look what I can do!” and he spelled his name with his body. I was so happy. I asked where he learned that and he couldn’t tell me. He said not school, not daycare, he just made it up. :) Such a smart boy! He has been very camera happy (or at least cooperative!) lately and that makes me even happier!

Then Eve wanted to play too and they tried to make a W. Eve needs a little work on her straight arms, but the kids had a blast anyway :)

The kids make a W

Tough questions

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Lex has started asking some pretty funny, sometimes tough, questions lately. Questions like, “What would happen if our faces were flat?” or “What would happen if there was a very big giraffe in our house” or “What would happen if this roll of toilet paper was sooooooo big it couldn’t even fit in the house.” Sometimes we get into good discussions and other times (when I’m tired) I end up just saying, “I don’t know Lex, what?” and then he moves on to different topic. The other day he asked “What would happen if Eve died?” Whoah!! Not what I was expecting but it did initiate our first (ever, I think) discussion about death. Yuck! Tonight’s question was “What would happen if our world was sideways?” It’s funny because you can answer these questions so many different ways, depending on how you choose to look at it. I chose to give him a demonstration on how the Earth (a plastic pumpkin on the table) rotates around the sun (a candle). He was impressed. Then I showed him that the Earth IS sideways (well, a little crooked anyway) and he was amazed! :)

A playdate!

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After preschool today we went on Lex’s first official requested playdate. What I mean is that we have playdates all the time with MY friends and their kids, but this week Lex specifically asked if he could have one of the boys in his class over to play. I called his mom and we worked out a visit at their house today after school. It was really nice. Lex was confused at first because he wanted to go home and have a nap first (our normal routine) but he quickly warmed to the idea of playing first :) They played on the swings, rolled down a giant hill, ran around, fed the horses, pulled Eve in a wagon, threw sticks into a pond for the dog and everyone had a good time. I’m so happy to see him playing with other kids and even requesting it! Yay for school!

A big day at the dentist

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I’m so tired, but I know everyone will be looking for this in the morning, so here goes!

We had an exciting day at the dentist today. As planned, I gave Lex a small dose of Valium an hour before our appointment and he was nice and relaxed… until it came time to get in the car! Then he fought like he hasn’t fought in along time! It was rough. We got him buckled in to the carseat and he settled down. We did a lot of talking about what would happen and the process. When we got to the dentist he just cried. I carried him in and he cried (thankfully the hitting and kicking had subsided) and, amazingly enough, when we got into the dentist chair he calmed right down. He was intrigued to go into a different room than they normally put him in. For cleanings he’s in an open-ish room with several chairs, for this procedure we were in a room with a closed door. Soundproof, perhaps? :) I was really impressed with how well the dentist did. He tends to talk down to Lex a bit and I think that confuses Lex sometimes, but it seemed to work well and he did an amazing job of calming Lex and he seemed really tender and attentive. No medical talk over Lex’s head, no “sit still!”, nothing. He called Lex “Lexi” many times, but that’s ok. He stayed in the room the whole time, with me and two nurses. He had me sit on the chair, legs off to the side, and Lex lay across my lap with his head positioned in the chair. I think Lex was really comfortable and I got to hold his hands. I had to turn my head a few times (needle injections in many places around his tooth, tooth pulled, something stuck deep inside the hole, eek!) but the whole thing went so well. They even gave Lex his tooth in a little green treasure chest because Lex told them that green is his favorite color.

I know you’re all wondering if the tooth fairy will be visiting our house. I’m sorry to disappoint, but I think she’ll be flying right by tonight. Alan and I struggle (ok, I think I struggle and he’s ok with it) about how much to encourage the lies/fantasies. I usually have no problem playing along, but I can’t bring myself to bring it up. Lex knows nothing about the tooth fairy and he’s a pretty logical guy, so I couldn’t figure out a way to build the story. So I didn’t. He is excited to take his tooth to school tomorrow and I think that is a better solution for all of us. :)

He wasn’t in the mood for a photo this afternoon, but I’ll get one for you soon. We spent the day relaxing. Lex napped and then played with play-doh for hours, I baked bread and mini carrot cakes (and I’m ill from my complete and total lack of will-power!), and made dinner. Eve was bored silly by the end of the day. She’s protesting daycare tomorrow, but I think it will be good for her. I’m hoping all goes smoothly getting him to school and daycare tomorrow. He’s still awake up stairs now though (it’s 9:49pm) so we’ll see how tomorrow goes!

Where will you be next Tuesday?

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I will be at the dentist with a drugged up little boy having a tooth removed.  Yep, removed!  Poor boy.  Remember awhile back when I was doing daycare and Lex and a little girl were wrestling and he cracked his chin on her head, resulting in an emergency trip to the dentist (his first trip to the dentist!).  At the time they thought the roots were damaged, but it seemed to get better over time.  Well, I guess not.

Lex woke up Saturday morning saying his tooth was sore and he’s been on a self-prescribed “soft foods” diet all weekend. This morning I dropped him off at school and came home to call the dentist.  I was hoping for a nice afternoon, post-nap appointment, but no luck.  Apparently during the school year their afterschool hours are booked months in advance.  My options were 10:30 this morning or sometime next week.  This morning we were also expecting a Sears service guy and we had Eve’s first day of gymnastics.  Busy!  Alan skipped out of work to pick up Lex, we swapped kids in the parking lot of the dentists office and I took Lex for his appointment while Alan and Eve went home to meet the Sears guy.  Lex did an AWESOME job at his appointment.  He opened his mouth for the dentist, sat still, and even let them take an x-ray!  I was very impressed.  Then the dentist showed me the x-ray, which showed a clear Y-shaped crack in his tooth.  Bummer!  The dentist gave him some antibiotics to reduce the swelling and infection and schedule us for extraction next Tueday.  So far Lex is pretty cool with things, but I can’t imagine he really understands what’s going to happen.  I think he’ll be a little surprised to find himself missing a tooth next week.

The dentist also gave me a preview of the grown-up teeth queuing up and he said most likely we’ll be facing further extractions to make way for them.  Apparently Lex has large teeth and small jaw.  Hmm… sounds familiar.  I think everyone in both side of this family has/had dental issues, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if Lex and Eve find themselves with less than perfect teeth.  Sigh.  I’m not ready to think about dental work yet.  What happened to my babies??  Where did they go?!

Reading

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The fact that Lex can read is funny sometimes.  Here is a situation that often occurs… When we leave him with someone new (teacher, babysitter, etc.) we tell them that he can read and that he settles himself with books.  They nod and say ok.  Sometimes I try to emphasize that he really CAN read, but other times I just say it and move on.  Invariably, when we get home the person says, “He can READ!”  :)  We always laugh and say, yes, we told you he can read.  I don’t think people really get it until they hear him read.  Sometimes I wonder if people think we are exaggerating, or just don’t fully grasp the idea, or what, but it’s funny how impressed people are when they actually see it!

This post was prompted by the reaction from our new babysitter.  Our old (and only) sitter went away to college a few weeks ago so we had to find a new one.  Always a scary process, for me.  Luckily the kids are awesome!  They were pretty obnoxious for Alan and I today (overtired from yesterday) but apparently put on their A-game for her tonight.  At dinner Lex was flipping through a magazine and apparently read something that shocked her.  She said she figured he could recognize words, but was amazed to hear him sounding out big words.  I think her example was “vinaigrette.” That’s a big word to hear a little boy sound out :)