Adventures both New and Old

   July and August have were super crazy busy for me and I will be honest I struggled through them. There was a week in July that I worked ten days in a row and then there was a  two week stretch in August where I either had to work, throw a birthday party or go to a various appointment everyday. To some that may not seem like much but I will let you know something about me I am not a "Type A" personality, I do not like to shovel a bunch on my plate to see how much I can take before I crash. I can barely chew through what little is on my plate and even then I whine about it. To all those "Type A's out there I salute you I wish I had your gusto for accomplishments but I am sorry I just do not.
 
But I digress my main point is that it is September now and I could not be happier!  September comes with several big changes in our house. Cullen will start attending New Adventures in the fall. This is the same school Cody attended when he was little. If they can get half the results that we got from Cody I will be a happy camper. Cullen is three and he does not talk the way a three year old should. His emotions also not on par with what an average three year old would exhibit. I started seeing the signs of this delay when he was around two and a half. At his two year old check up the Doctor asked if I had any concerns about his speech and I answered truthfully that I did not. He spoke then in a manner of s child who just turned two but as the months progressed I noticed he was not gaining any new vocabulary and often went into tantrums to tell us when he was upset or wanted something. In many ways he is like Cody was at this age some ways better and some ways more difficult. I hope that getting him in to this school where he can see a speech and occupational therapist on a regular basis will help him blossom the way that Cody was able too. I read Cody Leo the Late bloomer yesterday and he said "Mommy Cullen is like Leo" and I agree with him. But unlike Leo's mother tells Leos father I will watch that little boy every day for signs of blooming.

  Another big change is that Cody is getting glasses. At his kindergarten check-up he failed his eye exam and I was annoyed because I felt he was just bored an did not feel like doing the test. We had been waiting in the  waiting room for twenty minutes then an additional twenty in the room in the back and by the time she tested both the boys eyes tempers were flying and boredom was crushing. The friendly nurse first brought the chart close to Cody and asked him to identify the objects he saw  and in his bored and annoyed voice he said "UGH! It is just a sailboat,  a hand and a knight (which was a man on a horse) a circle an a triangle!" Then she brought the chart down the hall and tacked it back on the wall. Cody covered his right eye an read the first row with ease then he got to the third row and said a boat was a triangle and a star was a circle that a knight was a stick (a straight line) then with the left eye he shifted listlessly refused to name any before he was coaxed into naming the same results. I knew he had flunked it and was confirmed when my husband told me he indeed had and had to know see a eye doctor for further evaluation (Oh that is another annoying side story the doctors appointment ran so long I had to leave mid way through to deliver Cullen to a speech therapy appointment). I was irked I felt it was obvious to anyone who knew Cody that was just bored and did not feel like doing the test and once Cody has decided that he does not feel like doing something there is no way to make him do it.. But  I made him the appointment for the eye doctor the following week anyway  like a good mom. But at the eye appointment the Doctor confirmed that he was indeed in severe need of glasses and that it was a good thing that I caught it so early. Also that some of his attention problems in school may be caused by the fact he can not see his work properly and gets tired of focusing his eyes. So in about four weeks Coy will be wearing his new specks full time (it takes a while to get here).

     Colton is now in the first grade and man is it different than Kindergarten. I like his new teacher she is young and full of ideas and energy. Colton has been coming home with a mountain of homework every week. Two spelling assignments in which we can pick our activity from a list of twelve very creative ideas or create our own. He has to read for fifteen minutes every night which we already did he also has a math worksheet and sight word list.  I find doing his homework almost kind of fun especially with our creative spelling assignments I wish my first grade teacher had had such an innovative approach to learning! I might have liked school better if I could have wrote a story for homework or cut out letter from magazines to make the words. His reading as also improved greatly in just two weeks and can easily read his "Baggy books" by himself.

   So September is bringing excitement and changes in the Burke house and I can not wait to see what is coming next!