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Preschool Assessments

March 7th, 2010

James & Evelyn had their assessments for development with the School/City this week. It went really, really well. They both passed all the assessments - they commented on their speech in things to work on. They will follow up with us in fall to see how the few items are going.

For James he is a RRRockstar with R’s, apparently this isn’t usually a letter kids say properly till they are 7 or 8! He’s got them down pat, no trouble with Car, Rock, ect. He however wouldn’t attempt Zip or watch - though just now, he said “cuckoo” for watch. And all attempts to correct him result in “No! Cuckoo”.

Evelyn, is sweet was most the feedback. She seems to be dropping the end of her words-something I don’t think we noticed ourselves. Like one of the test words was “glasses” she said “glas”. Specifically it seemed “s” gave her trouble.

They suggested (and it was free that day) to get the kids ears checked - to ensure that this wasn’t why they were having troubles with some words. Evelyn did all three parts just fine (the 2nd part was a bit harder to grasp right away), but James was not into it.

They manged the first of three tests, he didn’t quite grasp the 2nd one, so they moved to the third - which involved a ‘look’ in his ear and it had to be quiet and him still. Which just wasn’t happening, so we are going back at the end of the month to try the 2nd part again - it was putting a little teddy bear into a bucket every time a tone sounded.

In the fall we’ll expect their call but already see a difference in just a day and a half in noticing and gently repeating properly from time to time or playing a game that involves those letters/sounds.

The kids have grown up SO much in the last few weeks it seems-they both had a growth spurt and are just different.

The photos from our trip are all on the photo page now.

We started our trip at 2am (mom & dad) got up and loaded up the car, the kids milk for the day and got ready ourselves. Shortly before 3am we woke J&E and got them dressed and ready for the trip. J was so tired- he was whining and walked into E’s room (we change them in there on carpet over his bedroom being hardwood) and immediately turned around and walked back to his room where he fell - face first - into his bed. We felt *so* bad for him.

It was c-o-l-d that morning, so they remarked on the coldness as we plopped them in their seats with blankets and zoobies (their blanket/pillow/animal toys). We got gas and headed on our way. J&E weren’t really interested in going back to sleep at that point so we put in “Cars” which they watched all of. Then I turned off the players and they napped till we stopped for breakfast in Illinois at a Cracker Barrel around 7:30am. Before that though we hit some nasty snow sleet mess with very little visibility. I was glad we were one of the very few people on the road at that hour. We made it thru Chicago without any troubles

They didn’t eat the best, loved the OJ though and we continued on. We had drive thru McDonald’s for lunch to try to keep good time to make it to Memphis in time to see the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel. J&E were amazing travelers! We stopped at Rend Lake, IL for a break - stretching our legs and it was a really beautiful place to have stopped. We got some fresh air, some running and a few photos. The weather by here was in the low 50’s, which compared to the 16-ish we left at, was warm enough to walk about in long sleeve shirts & pants without a jacket.

We pushed on and arrived to Memphis around 3:45pm, we found the Peabody hotel but the walk to see the Ducks was quite far! Then I had to use the bathroom and J&E needed diaper changes but the silly bathroom there wasn’t equipped to change diapers ( I found this OFTEN, far too often for my liking along our travels ).

We found the ducks and watch them for a while. But it was still a half hour off at one point and J was running around a bit crazy so we decided to leave. We debated driving further or staying in Memphis, we had originally thought to see other things around the city. We ended up calling the two hotels I had picked to stay at and then choosing the 2nd one we knew had a pool (which we never actually ended up using). We got our room and got settled - I had packed an overnight bag for us knowing we’d stay one night on the way there but things got moved around like blankets, toys and snacks while driving and so we had to make several trips and get organized.

By the time we got in our room and settled it was 6:15pm, we went in search of dinner but it was a Saturday night in Memphis we decided on somewhere nearby but don’t’ remember what - but it was PACKED, so we spotted a Taco Bell and settled for that.

We were all beat.
J&E ran a bit around the hotel, we gave them a quick bubble bath and then put them in the bed.
They haven’t been in the same room in 4 months. They haven’t shared a crib since they were 5 months old. The slept in our bed when we went to see Susie & Wendy/family in 2007 when they were 6 months old. And a random 2-3x when we were nursing when they were less than 3 months old-all the time… otherwise they’d never slept in such a big bed or together with really ‘knowing’ it.

They did well! We had to go in a few times, just to remind them it was bedtime, more because we knew we needed sleep to not be crabby the next day! And we weren’t going to fall asleep in the bed next to them if they weren’t’ already asleep.

Sleep continued to go well the rest of our trip. Naptime was a no go while at families (in the car they napped though) they wanted to play together then, but that was OK. After them not doing so the first day, we hit the mall the 2nd day and were with family the third.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, a lovely spread with a custom cook to order window- we didn’t utilize this though. We were trying to get on the road. We did around 8:30. The drive was just as lovely, the weather was beautiful- a little cool to start with but warmed up. We hit some rain at some point but it cleared quickly. We ate lunch at PF Chang’s - our first time. YUM Eggplant!

We hit Baton Rouge and rang Lillian to let her know we’d be there soon-so they weren’t worried. It had taken us a bit longer to get out of the hotel earlier that morning than we’d expected - with breakfast being available there we took advantage.

We got settled and visited, and hit bed early if i remember right. It had been a long day.
The next day we walked the mall with Raymond & Lillian and came back to visit with Melba, Lisa & Landon. Later Lillian & I went to Walmart to get me some shoes and Evelyn some milk.
At some point David came by for a visit. James went to a basketball game with Raymond that night, which he really enjoyed.

The next day we stayed back at the house while Lillian & Raymond walked, and opted to take them out later instead of a nap. The nap didn’t go well the previous day. They played J&E got their first Build A Bears as their souvenir for the trip. Later Della, Joe & Christina stopped by. Raymond made a fire so J&E could see one for the first time.

The next day we spent with Mary & John, we stopped in by Jonathan in the afternoon and Melba & Lisa & family later that night. When we got back to Lillian’s she showed James her photo albums and all the memorabilia that Raymond has from his coaching days. I sorted some of our things for the next few days of travel.

We both wanted to stay longer, and wished we could have. The next morning we hung around a while before taking off. Said our goodbyes and took a slower travel back towards home, stopping for the little Capital, then Stuckey’s, for drinks and stretches, for food, and not really caring the time it took to get home.

We ended up in Memphis for the night, we drove by Graceland and then headed to the hotel we’d stayed at our way down. It worked out so well and we knew what to expect. We got settled and looked for somewhere for dinner - we settled on a Mexican restaurant very near had it not have cooled down we could have walked.

We headed back to the hotel and had a drink and the kids had a snack at the managers reception, then hung out in the room. The pool was closed during this stay - so we never got to hit the water, which was sad.

The next day we heaeed for St. Louis. We hit up the Gateway Arch and The City Museum, which were both very cool -only wish it had been a little warmer.

We then decided to head for home, instead of staying in St. Louis the night. We considered staying outside Chicago if we made it that far and going to IKEA but in the end we didn’t even go near Chicago and pushed on home. We got in around midnight.

The kids took about 6 days to adjust back to sleeping in.

So last night, we tried it with our piano and trio blocks and he was doing it (pushing the button & then dropping it) by the end, so every other day we are going to work on it a bit so he remembers the task at hand for the test later.

Entry Filed under: Baby