Family Values

Coles’s day started at 6:30am by giving Oma a cuddle in the guest room. Oma had spent the night and told him that he could come into her room anytime after 6am. As soon as his clock radio started playing at 6:40am he was raring to go. I told them that Cole needed to at least rest for a while longer so he spent an hour ‘meditating’ or at least sitting quietly while she meditated.

He had a healthy breakfast of 2 boiled eggs and then did some sword fighting practice with Oma. He rounded out the morning with a long bike ride while Oma ran along beside him. He had a lot of energy stored apparently, so Oma got a good workout!

At about 11:30am he got to go to the mall with Mama and Oma with the intent of getting a pair of glasses. Cole wanted a pair that looked like Harry Potter’s, dark and round. After going through about 10 pairs of glasses he decided on the 2nd pair he had seen, a pair of dark plastic round glasses that look so cute on him. My very own Harry Potter! The best news was that Lenscrafters said that they could have the glasses ready in about an hour. Just enough time to get some coffee and lunch.

Of course that lead to another first, his very first cup of coffee! Yes, my Mother, his Oma, bought him a ’short, decaf latte.’ With just a little sugar was added he declared it “delicious, better than hot chocolate.” Since he only drank about 1/4 of it I’m not too worried about it being a permanent drink choice for him. At least as a decaf it had less caffeine than the Coke Cola that he drank at Karate Camp earlier in the year.

After lunch we picked up his new glasses and got them fitted. Once they were on there was no chance of getting them off again. So much for wearing them just for reading! He was thrilled with all the new details he could see with his glasses. He kept looking over the lenses saying “smooth” then looking through the lenses “not smooth” just goes to show how much he has been missing all this time. I’m glad that I made a fuss about his distance reading yesterday during the exam.

Cole happened to notice that West Coast Amusements had set up lots of rides and games in the mall parking lot. As a special treat we took him on the Tilt-A-Whirl ride and got him some cotton candy. It was a great way to end out trip to the mall. Of course the glasses stayed on the entire time.

Cole went for an eye exam today and it was determined that he now needs glasses. The optometrist had been watching his eye sight for a few years. It hasn’t been ‘perfect’ for a while and there has been evidence of an astigmatism, they were hoping that his sight would self correct. I mentioned that he has been having issues with reading from a distance and asked that they take that into consideration when doing the exam.

After a lengthy exam it was determined that the astigmatism was not improved and his eye sight had not self corrected. We left with a prescription for new glasses to be used first for reading and then, if he liked them, he could wear them for longer during the day. We found a pair of glasses that he really liked but he wouldn’t be able to get them in his hands until Tuesday-Thursday… much to long for a small child to wait for his first pair of glasses. One of the vision centers suggested Lens Crafters which might be able to make them in an hour. Now we know what we will be doing with Oma tomorrow!

We went to see “How to train your dragon” yesterday, it was a fun family film. Cole was enthralled by the idea of making friends with a dragon. I think he will be looking for dragons the next time we see a cliff or a few trees resembling a forest.

Imagine my surprise when I went into the theater, after buying coffee, to find the seat hubby and Cole had saved for me and saw my in-laws instead. They were taking in the show with their daughter, what are the odds? Hubby was able to surprise them on his way to get popcorn. Nothing like an arm coming from behind your seat to steal some popcorn in order to put a twist into the visit to the movies.

Cole and his cousin both look great dressed up for the movies.

Since Cole was home ’sick’ this week we had to keep him entertained. This got harder as the week went on as we succumbed to cabin fever. Unfortunately for us Cole wasn’t really feeling sick; he just had a few spots up to 15 at a time, each day the oldest ones would fade and 1 or 2 new ones would appear. Since none of them ever turned into chickenpox type blisters we felt safe taking him out into the world as long as he wouldn’t have close contact with other kids.

On Thursday I had a Career Transitions training class; so Daddy had the fun of entertaining Cole all day. Cole got to watch Daddy get a Chiropractor adjustment, had a sushi lunch at the mall, rode the mall train, and even got to visit his favourite store ever, Toys’R'Us! I wish my sick days were as much fun.

In an effort to stay slightly sane today, Friday, I dragged Cole out on a walking tour of the local shopping mall. The tour started at IHOP for a pancake lunch. We then took the longest possible path to Walmart in order to look at, but not not buy, the toys and read a few books. Next stop was Coles Books to read more books, gotta love a kid that can spend an hour in Walmart and still spend 1/2 hour looking at books. After all that fun I took him grocery shopping. I’m not sure, but I think I may have worn him out a bit, he even asked to go right home and drooped a little in his carseat.

We noticed a few small spots on Cole’s shoulder Friday and a few more showed up over the weekend. A friend of ours mentioned on Sunday that the spots looked like Chickenpox to her. Since none of the spots had developed into blisters and weren’t open sores, I wasn’t worried about him going to school. I did look up the BC rules for sending kids to school with Chickenpox just in case that is what he had, this is what I found:

• A person is contagious from 2 days before spots appear and until all blisters have crusted over, which is usually 5 days after the first blisters appear.
• Chickenpox is contagious from about 2 days before the rash appears until all the blisters are crusted over. A child with chickenpox should be kept out of school until all blisters have dried, usually about 1 week. If you’re unsure about whether your child is ready to return to school, ask your doctor.

Since Cole had been listening on Sunday, when his teacher asked about the spot on his neck, of course, he said he had Chicken Pox. He was immediately packed up and sent down to the office to wait for me to come pick him up.When I got there it was apparent that the school staff wasn’t sure that it was Chicken Pox, one teacher said it looked like spider bites, another said that it looked like an allergic reaction. However the end result was that I still had to take him home.

The doctor appointment was inconclusive as well. Our family doctor said she wouldn’t have pegged the spots as Chickenpox, but that they are viral in nature. Apparently the spots aren’t presenting as Chickenpox normally would but then since he is vaccinated he wouldn’t present the same. We were advised to keep him home an extra day to make sure there are no new spot. We are allowed to send him back to school 24 hrs after no new spots.

We are now on day 5 since the first spot appeared and those first spots are fading without forming blisters, but a couple of new spots have appeared. This means that Cole gets 1 more day at home with Mama ‘just to be sure’ and to keep the other parents at the school from worrying. I’m still not sure what it is that Cole has but hopefully it goes away soon!

All it took was refresher training on which to do up first, the button or the zipper. Daddy says button and Cole agrees.

Poetry in motion

Watching my 6yr old rock Spiderman Friend or Foe on the PSP .. a father couldnt be more proud …… *swoons*

A Boxing Nerf blaster guy because they have lots of Nerf guns that shoot out real lava.

Had some excitement today. Cole swallowed swallowed a 1/2 inch chromed ball bearing from his Magnetix set. After calling the Heath Nurse we confirmed that swallowing a ball bearing isn’t a “Rush to the Hospital” thing unless he is having trouble breathing or can’t keep down water and food. So far so good.

On a side note, I discovered that if I really want to freak out Cole, I just have to suggest calling “911.” For some reason he thought that meant they might have to cut open his tummy or punch his tummy to get it out. We explained that “911″ was just a number to call if there is an emergency and we needed help.

I ended up calling “811″ the “not immediate emergency” number that links to a Public Health Nurse. The Health Nurse also told us not to induce vomiting as that could cause the ball bearing to come up from the stomach and go into his airway. This would have been helpful to know before we tried to get him to bring it up. *sigh*

Swim Kids 2 – This level builds skills in front and
back swims. Children are introduced to deep water
activities and proper use of a personal flotation
device. Endurance is built on flutter kick and glides.

Cole had his first detention yesterday. He didn’t complete his desk work during class time so he had to stay after school to finish. I went to his class at about 3:10 pm to pick him up. He was just finishing off his work when I arrived. I had a talk with his teacher about how things were going and helped him clean the garbage (pencil shavings, broken erasers, etc) out of his desk. This all seemed like a logical consequence to me.

I found out from his teacher today that some of his classmates have been asking if they can stay after school too. Apparently Cole really liked having the extra attention from his teacher and having me giving him attention after class. He was telling all his friends about it and making it sound so good that they all wanted to have a chance to get that ‘treat’ too.

Not quite the result that we were expecting. Today when he didn’t finish his desk work in the morning his teacher had him stay in at lunch. From 12:00-12:15 he did desk work, then from 12:15-12:30 he ate lunch. His teacher said that she had never seen him so focused, he finished his desk work faster than normal and ate all his lunch in record time so that he could get outside and play with his friends. We all agree that lunch time detention was less of a treat for him. 

Cole has had a lot of fun reading the BOB books. He chooses them first for reading to his class during Show and Tell. With all his practice reading the BOB Books at home and the Sunshine books from his classroom, it is time for him to move on to the next challenge.

In Bob Books Set 4, advancing readers still love being able to say, “I read the whole book!” ® The easy start in Ten Men builds confidence.

Longer stories and complex words gradually develop skills. Sounds repetition within words makes decoding easy.

4 books of 16 pages each plus 4 books of 24 pages each.
New blends, more sight words, and longer compound words.

Cole dropped the F-Bomb today. He didn’t actually know it was a swear word, up until today he had always insisted that “the real ‘F’ word is ’shut up’.“   We hadn’t done a lot to discourage that belief. 

It came out on the way up to bed as he wiggled it gently. There was no pain and no bleeding, he was thrilled. He is now missing all 4 front teeth, is fun to watch him eat.

SwimKids 1 Advanced:    This level builds on a child’s previous swim introduction to floats and glides with kick. Children build their endurance by improving distance.

Dean ‘helped’ pull it out. It’s the 1st tooth that hasn’t been yanked out early by a dentist! YAY!

Cole has done really well learning to read phonetically with BOB Books Sets 1 and 2. Now it’s time for more reading practice and new consonant blends with Set 3. 

Bob Books Set 3 adds something new for young readers. Consonant blends introduce youngsters to the next level of reading. Consistent vowel sounds mean skill building continues at a comfortable pace.

10 books. 16 pages each. 8 stories plus 2 activity books.
Short vowels continue, adding blends and compound words.

He is so excited to go be going to school and learn new things.  He is also looking forward to playing with his friends.