Report Card

In honor of Damon surviving his first week of kindergarten, I am going to give him (and the rest of us) a report card on the past week.
Damon: C+I think he does fine once he's at school, but tears were shed every day last week, either when I picked him up or dropped him off. One morning, he cried all the way to school because he knew he was going to have to draw what he did before school and he couldn't do it right. He had grand visions of drawing himself sitting on a chair, at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, and the thought of not being able to draw that was sending him into panic mode. I tried to reassure him that his teacher was not going to expect anything more than he was capable of and that he just needed to do his best. As is always the case with Damon, once he realized he could do it, he was fine and he has been drawing nonstop all week.

It's still hard to be tough with him when he is so obviously upset, but Jeff and I both feel that babying him isn't going to make things any better. I'm hoping that as he continues to realize that he can do hard things (one of my mottos for him), he'll start feeling more confident and be able to handle the anxieties that he is dealing with right now.

Allie: B- Of course I am mostly talking about pottytraining with her and she has done about as well as I expected she would do. Of course there have been accidents, but only one that made me question my judgment that she was ready for this. We went to the park on Saturday evening and it was too much for her to take. She peed in her underwear, then about a half an hour later, pooped into them. That one accident alone earns her a one-half grade dock, as she would be holding solid in the B range without it. She managed to stay mostly dry at church yesterday (because the humidity makes everything damp anyway, I'm not sure if the moisture was from "a couple drops," or from sweating), which was a miracle. One of my most vivid memories of potty-training this week was one morning when I knew she opened the door and it took me a couple of minutes to finish what I was doing before I could go outside and see what she was doing. Dressed only in a pair of underwear, she had seen the neighbor's sprinkler on across the street and had run over to it. When I peeked out, she was pulling down her underwear and letting the water wash over her body. I called for her to come home, but ran to grab the camera, hoping she would delay her obedience long enough for me to get a picture. Sadly, and contrary to her nature, obeyed instantly, and ran home with her wet underwear sagging below her bottom.

Also taken into account in her final grade was that fact that she has been taking naps again almost every day, for which I am giving her a solid A+. Her mischieviousness gets her a few more deductions, but overall she is doing really well. Yesterday she was holding the "modider (monitor)" up to her ear and talking into it like it was a microphone. I could hear her wishing the person on the other end good luck and then asked if they would send her some Starbursts (a common request from Damon and Allie to their Aunt Tara). I asked her who she was talking to, expecting it to be one of her aunts, and she replied, "Jesus." Great. Ask him if he could send some for me, too.

Kyla: A- She only gets the half grade dock because she's woken up at 5:00 three times this week. She hasn't needed to eat, and I have been getting her to go back to sleep by just sticking the binkie back in her mouth, but sometimes it takes 5 or 6 tries before she falls back asleep. I'm not giving in, though, unless 10 attempts of offering the binkie fail. Last night she slept from 10:30 until 7:30, so I know she can do it if she wants. Other than that, though, I am falling in love with her more every day.

Trapnell Family: A We finally managed to read scriptures together 5 times last week (our goal) and rewarded ourselves with some brownies and ice cream last night. Let's see if we can make it two weeks in a row (the Sunday treat thing should motivate us enough!).

My Sister, Heather: A Not only did she get both parts of my previous challenge right (Jeff could never love the Buckeyes more than the Cougars, even though Ohio State is so much better, and the quote was from Ever After--ten points to Laura for figuring that out, too--), she also went through 28 hours of labor before having to have a C-section on Friday. Kalia Ruth Bigler was 9 lbs (the main reason she ended up with the C-section) and, from what I hear, was worth every minute. I can't begin to imagine all that Heather went through to get her here, but we're all so glad everything is fine. And yay for a new niece whose name goes so nicely with Kyla's! Unfortunately, I won't be able to see Heather, or Kalia, until Christmas, but thanks to modern technology should be able to see a ton of pics as soon as Heather gets home from the hospital!!

Okay, that's all for now. I just (minutes ago, actually) finished Eclipse and will post about that after I process it a little more. I also finished Wuthering Heights for my bookclub (strange coincidence, because WH is quoted a lot in E) and I may write a little bit about that, too, once we discuss.