Dec. 11, 2008 It’s cold, cold, cold and Christmas excitement is in the air! John’s really looking forward to Santa’s visit this year! November just sped by. Daddy is 40 years old now! We had a party for him at the Nerino’s house. It was basically a video game party and Mike and Derek shot guys on the Xbox until John came and then they switched to the Wii. John really enjoyed the bowling game and I thought it was fun too. We all enjoyed Dad’s Bart ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. John went to the Santa parade with Grandma and Papa this year because of Dad’s party. John’s report card was very good. He got lots of A’s and B’s and we’re very proud of him. He’s certainly a smart little guy and now he’s getting good at writing too. He’s starting to be more interested in writing and it isn’t like pulling teeth anymore. This weekend is Uncle Wade’s 50th birthday party. We’re supposed to go over there on Sunday for snacks and celebrations. John’s class has a skating party next week and they have their “Trois Petits Cochons” play as well. John is the loup (wolf). Hopefully he won’t be too silly. Kids really tend to turn on the laughs when they have an audience. He’s maturing so much, it’s scary. Childhood certainly flies by! John’s still enjoying the bowling. A few weeks ago, he bowled against his “coach” (some guy we never see) and beat him. I think his highest score so far has been a 126 and his average is in the 70’s. It’s better than me anyhow! November 2, 2008 Well, Halloween has come and gone. John had two different costumes this year. He was a pirate at the school Halloween Dance and a Pokemon (Pikachu) for school party and trick or treating. We had a busy weekend last weekend with the school dance on Friday night and the church Halloween party on Sunday afternoon. John had a blast playing with his friends at the dance and I basically sat in a corner of the noisy gym, counting the minutes until I could leave! Somehow, the idea of a noisy dance after a busy week at work just doesn’t entice me. The church party was pretty tame and they didn’t have a great turnout so John got lots of candy. They had games with prizes and due to the fact there weren’t too many partiers, they just basically gave everyone something. Trick or treating was pretty quiet. It was a lovely evening, so there were lots of kids out. John lasted about 45 minutes and when he figured he had enough candy, he wanted to go and hand out treats at grandma’s house. He was pretty hyper by this time and had a hard time just settling down. Yesterday we had to take him to the ER because he was in so much stomach pain from being constipated (poor kiddo). He couldn’t hardly walk and we basically put him in a wheelchair and pushed him where he needed to go. There was a very nice locum doctor on call whom Derek knows from the airport. She ordered a pediatric enema (yikes) and thank God the nurse was very good with John and just explained everything. He was so uncomfortable that he didn’t even resist and everything came out fine in the end *grin*. We’ve settled into the routine of school. This week I’m Teacher in charge quite a bit which takes me out of my classroom. I don’t mind doing it once in a while – nice change. October 4, 2008 Today was John’s 6th birthday party. It was pretty much the same format as last year: a bowling party at Timberlane’s. I decided to do this again because swimming parties at Best Western are way too popular here and I didn’t want the kids to trash the house. It was a wild 2 hours, but nobody got hurt :) John loved his new presents and especially his race track from Nathan. Derek patiently put it together for about a half hour. He also got a very cool ball game from Molly where you have to do what the ball tells you to do. There were assorted Pokémon stuff and Ben10 things as well. Instead of the standard cake, I decided to make a dirt and worms dessert. It seemed to be a big hit. Most kids love gummy worms (except Emily). You can’t please everyone! It continues to be difficult being John’s art teacher. He just wants me to be mom and acts up constantly. This week, I had to drag his desk and him into the coatroom. He wasn’t very pleased with me and I wasn’t very pleased with him! League bowling continues. John bowled super well at his bowling party and was much less hard on himself. He got a 113, which is only 3 points less than what I scored when we went family bowling a week ago. School is going better. John seems to have less sore stomachs now. The days when Derek is off, he walks home with Kaitlin and Adam. This is in preparation for him eventually walking home by himself. It’s truly fall now and the other day we had a really thick layer of frost on the ground. John is thinking of being the Incredible Hulk for Halloween, or a Pokémon. Our routine is pretty predictable lately. We come home, have supper and then go for our swim. It’s a way for me to get some exercise and a way for John to let off some excess energy. He’s doing very well with his reading at school. We’ll see what level he scores when he has his assessment this week. Hopefully he will show his teacher what he knows. Derek made a superb book for John’s birthday about our family trip this summer. I’m sure he will treasure it for years to come. Grandma is going away this week until Oct. 21. We don’t get to see her as much as we’d like because life is just so darn busy. I’m enjoying the kindergartens, but finding the art lessons in grades 1-5 challenging. September 3, 2008 Today was John's first day of Grade 1. He was not really looking forward to going and said to me this morning that he was scared. Derek was able to come in from work to walk him to the playground. Mme Blackmon said he had a really good day, however, he was a dreadful monster child when I had to come in and teach him art. I vow that I never ever want to be his homeroom teacher. He wanted to sit on my lap, told me my game was "boring" and then proceeded to not try. I was getting really really frustrated with him. By the end of the day, he accidentally hurt another kid, was bawling and running out of the room. As a consequence, he did not get to go swimming and lost his Friday prize (we were going to buy him some Pokémon cards ... he doesn't deserve them!) I suspect he was really tired and that was one of the contributing factors. He hasn't been going to bed very well lately and uses any excuse to stay up. After supper, we went and signed John up for Youth Bowling. The club meets every Saturday morning at 10:00. John is actually a pretty good little bowler and I wanted to find an activity that was not too stressful. Mom says she wouldn't mind taking him to bowling sometimes because she doesn't get to see John all that much during the school year. I had a tiring day at Senior Kindergarten with one child crying for about 20 minutes. I only had one half of my class and hope that the other half goes well tomorrow. John has basically been told that the next time he acts up, Mrs. Nerino will come and get him and he will have time out in the special education room. We'll see how he is during my next art class. Overall, we're pleased he was so well-behaved for Mme Blackmon and Mr. Gallant, the Christian Living teacher. © 2008 Derek Kennedy