"So Sweet"

Last Saturday, I went to Matt's Mom's to get my nails done and Matt kept the boys. It took me about 45 minutes, and I never expected to find this when I returned....

"Growing up toooooooooo fast"

Nikolas is almost 10 months old. He is finally cutting his first tooth. He is crawling around everywhere and pulling up. I caught him letting go a couple of times yesterday. So the days of sitting him in the floor with toys or putting him in the bouncy seat are OVER!!! He can't be still for more than 5 seconds. He can make really big messes too. He's into everything. Everything he picks up goes straight to the mouth.

Finally Settling In

Nate is doing great at school this week. 3 smiley faces so far. His teacher came up to me yesterday afternoon when I was picking him up and told me that he is such a joy to teach. She also apologized for last week. She said that she felt like the problems were her fault and that she was very sorry for the week that Nate had. She also said that he is the most well behaved child in her classroom. Hearing that made me feel so much better. I was so dreading school this week, but it has turned out to be a wonderful week so far. Nate wakes up every morning ready to go. He told me this morning that he loves learning new things. They are already learning how to spell. By CHRISTmas they will be reading. It has changed so much over the years.

Nate and Daddy on the first day of school

KINDERGARTEN

Nate started his first day of kindergarten last Friday. Matt and I took him to his class room and he went right to his seat, cleaned out his backpack and looked at us and wanted to know when we were leaving. So we kissed him goodbye and left him. He didn't even cry. Neither did I, but it wasn't because I didn't want to. I really missed him. I couldn't wait until 2:55 to get here. He ran right to me. He was just as happy to see me as I was him. He said that he had a great day and he had a smiley face hanging around his neck so I assumed that meant he was good. However on Monday afternoon when I went to pick him up he had a note in his backpack that he had to go to the office for disobeying the teacher and a Sad Face . Therefore I had a conference with Dr. Willingham the principal on Tuesday morning. Come to find out, this happened on Friday. I might be wrong but if he was in trouble on Friday, why did he get a smiley face and why when I took him to school on Monday and talked to his teacher did she not mention it. She said that they had a great first day of school. So Mrs. Norris called me around 12:30 to let me know that Nate was doing great. Today however when I went to pick him up, he kind of looked like he had been crying. Apparently he and a couple more little boys were horse playing in the gym so therefore Nate got a paddling. Keep in mind Nate being the only one to be punished because the other little boys had not been in as much trouble as Nate. I found this out because one of the little boys went home and asked his mom why did Nate get a paddling and he didn't. I might be wrong again but it really sounds to me like they are trying to set an example with my child. 1. He is 5 years old. 2. Little boys are going to play. and 3. Don't just punish my child for what others are doing also. He keeps telling me that his teacher is mean to him. So, what do I do? I am going to give it until Monday, If things don't get better my only alternative is to have him put in a different classroom... When I found out whose class he was in, a lot of people told me to have him transferred to a different class but I thought I would just see. Well, maybe I should have listened. If any of you have any advice I am open to hearing it.

I can see right now that Oakman is a lot different from Berry.

"Fun Day"

Yesterday Matt was off so we decided to take Nate out for a fun day. We let him plan everything. We were going to take him to Six Flags or Alabama Adventure, but we wanted to do something that we thought Nikolas would enjoy too. So first, we went to the Birmingham Zoo. they loved it. Nate's favorite animal was the camels. He rode one of them and his name was Dude. Matt and I were really surprised that he wanted to. They saw lots of animals, from snakes and frogs to lions and tigers. We got there around 12:00 and we were ready to leave around 3:30. But before we left we took them over to ride the train. Both of them really enjoyed that. I think we picked one of the hottest days to go.
Nate and Dude"Smile"



Next stop was The Vulcan. We toured the museum and then went to the observation deck. Nate absoulutely loved it. We thought he might be scared 100 feet up in the air. But No he wasn't. It was really nice up there until Nate decided that he wanted to walk down all 159 steps instead of riding the elevator down. Matt and I were exhausted by the time we got back down to the car.







Then it was off to Chuck E. Cheese. Nate and Matt played games for over 2 hours. I thought they would never run out of tokens. Nikolas even got to ride the Barney car. I forgot my camera in the car, so the only picture of them there was taken with Matt's cell phone and I haven't downloaded it yet. When we were getting ready to leave there, Nate just kept telling us thank you for an awesome day.





Last stop was The Vulcan again. When we were there earlier in the day, the lady at the desk told Nate to make sure he came back after dark so that he could see all the lights of Birmingham. So he would have it no other way.

Meet Sam

"SAM"

Well, it looks as if George isn't coming home so we now own a horse. Not really, but he's a lot Bigger than George, weighing in at a whopping 145 pounds. A really nice couple in Birmingham gave him to Nate. His name is Sam. He is a 4 year old weimaraner. After seeing Sam, it made me realize that George was still just a puppy.

This isn't a very good picture but I wanted you so see just how big Sam is.

Kindergarten Orientation

Today was kindergarten orientation at Oakman Elementary. Nate will be starting to school on Friday. He will be in Mrs. Norris' class. We met her today and she seemed really nice. She hasn't been teaching very long because she decided she wanted to spend time with her children before choosing a career. Nate is really excited. He said, "Mommy can't I just stay today?" I can't beleive my baby is going to school in less than a week. I am really going to miss him. Being a stay at home mom has its advantages, but then again, it has disadvantages. I have never really been away from Nate. Sure he goes to Granny and Papaw's but he could come home when he wanted. I just hope he adjusts easily to being on a schedule.