These were on a real camera, so I forgot about them. This was back on August 23!
Off to the pool…Owen in an old suit and Katie in a new suit from a grandma (I forget which one). 🙂
She wasn’t able to pull her swimsuit up in one try…and she didn’t want Owen to help her get her arms in. Sigh.
We were the first family in Owen’s classroom so he wasn’t too shy…and agreed to a picture with his new teacher, Mrs. Talley.
I took advantage of the empty room by taking a few room photos.
As more and more people arrived, he got more and more shy…and was eventually glued to my side. There are six kids total from his Kindergarten class (24 students total) so it’s nice that they start with friends. He also knows a neighbor girl (from our street) and a boy we met through t-ball (the older brother of a teammate) so he’s happy!
The teacher had a brief presentation and it was much less chaotic than the Kindergarten one last year! When I got home, I found this picture on the school’s Facebook page—you can see Tom and Katie at the very right edge and I’m sitting in front of them.
What might have been the best part of the event, though, was talking to the preschool director about getting Katie in the Peer Modeling program (it was recommended by a friend). The actual pre-school program is for high-risk or special needs-type students, but they have preschool-aged peers come into the class to model behaviors and skills. And it doesn’t cost anything! (I just have to provide transportation and lunch/snack. I can do that!) I filled out the paperwork and now just have to wait—they typically invite kids to the classroom for a trial period and see how it goes or where the best fit would be. I’m practically jumping for joy to think about her being in preschool for three days a week! And she’d be in the same hallway as Owen!
So the night was a success!
Owen just finished his “100 Books in 100 Days” and “200 Pages in 100 Days” Challenges!!
It wasn’t all easy—he fought the workbook pages a bit and got WEEKS behind but caught up at the end when he realized he might not get his surprise. 🙂 Also, to be honest, he really probably only read a total of 60-70 books, but a bunch of them were small chapter books (like 10 pages per chapter, three or four chapters per book) so he got multi-credits for those. And this was his reward!
There’s usually crying by Katie at some point, the kids playing nice, doors slamming, arguing between the kids over something/anything/nothing, sometimes yelling on my end…and then there’s this.
I had finished my shower and gotten dressed and it was quiet. Too quiet.
Owen was reading Katie the book that Tom had started the previous night.
Cue my heart melting. 🙂
Owen’s elementary school had their teachers get on buses and visit a few neighborhoods to say hi and hand out treats!

Owen’s two kindergarten teachers are on the far right.
We were coming home from the sprayground a few minutes before the bus was to arrive at the local library, so we stopped. Owen got to say hi to his Kindergarten teacher and Aide, he met his new art teacher, and got an icee pop!
Katie has the jumping in down and the floating down…now she just has to get the middle part of getting into her back by herself.
We were headed into the city to have lunch with friends…and since it was semi close to a subway stop, we decided to make a fun trip out of it! We had to drive north about 15 minutes to catch the metro where it starts.
The kids were super excited about riding a train!
At the restaurant, Kabob Palace.
We wan into a bit of a snafu on the way home—long story short we weren’t paying attention and ended up on the wrong train (headed north instead of south) so we had a 20-minute wait for the next (correct) train.
And the car was a bit more crowded than our first trip so the boys had to stand for one stop.
They both loved it and wanted to do it again immediately. 🙂 I’m sure we’ll go somewhere again, but I’m also sure it won’t be a regular thing because this simple, short trip cost us about $22 in fares (it’s about $3.50pp each direction)!
There are almost always geese out on/near the road when we take Owen to his activity camp in the morning—and Katie LOVES seeing them.
Katie: What are they doing?
Me: Maybe they’re looking for breakfast.
Katie: Cereal!
Me: No, I don’t think they want cereal.
Katie: Maybe they need a home.
Me: Maybe.
Katie: We should take them to our home!
Me: What would we do with geese at our house?
Katie: Put them outside!
Owen: I love red cherry snow cones. Except not much because I just ate five pieces.
Owen: Mama, I love you.
Me: I love you, too.
Owen: And I also love Sick Bricks.
We were riding home with all the windows open.
Owen: It’s 100% windy!
Katie: Mom, can I get in the box with Charlie?
Me: Sure.
Katie: But there’s not enough box!
Katie: Owen, do you love daddy?
Owen: Yes.
Katie: Owen, do you love Mommy?
Owen: Yes.
Katie: Owen, do you love me?
Owen: Yes.
Katie: Owen, do you love Cayenne?
Owen: [silence]
Katie: Owen? Do you love Cayenne?
Owen: [silence]
Katie: I love her, she’s my friend. She’s my girl.
Welcome to a typical Katie tantrum—she wanted to put her socks on herself but the first one got stuck within seconds. She started this as I walked forward to help her—and it went on for a good 15 seconds before I started recording and continued for at least 15 seconds after I stopped.
Owen’s pediatrician wanted to revisit his genetics results to see if any new information has been discovered in the past 2.5 years…so it was off to Bethesda to see a specialist.
In the waiting room, Owen made a beeline for the one kid he saw who was also using a tablet. 🙂
The short story is that there is nothing new regarding his previous test results and we don’t have to worry about revisiting them for another two years unless something changes drastically with his health or behavior. We also don’t have to worry about getting Katie tested.
I fully believe it’s something that could’ve been handled over the phone without actually seeing Owen in person but I obviously that would make things too easy. (Fortunately the drive there did not give me an anxiety attack as it has in the past—the traffic was fairly light and I left plenty of time.)
This hasn’t been her best response yet but of course I didn’t have the video running on those. 🙂
To celebrate my weight loss, I went shopping. 🙂 I was hoping to find a pair or two of capris on sale that would last me the rest of this season (and most likely through the spring when I will hopefully need another new size—the way my body apparently fits into pants, I may be wearing these for 3-4 months (if I keep losing at the same rate)). This was me trying on new jeans—and kind of liking how they looked and feeling good! I sent the pic to Tom saying I wasn’t sure—they were a little tight but they were stretchy—and he said GET THEM. Smart man, I know! 🙂
And then we got Owen a future treat at the Lego store (we’re changing his chore chart reward system), and he was giddy about the Minecraft displays. 🙂
Playing before her lesson:
She has reverted back a little from that one day of awesome jumps and floating…she still does well enough, though, and has fun.
Normally she plays after her lesson (while Owen does his lesson) but today she wanted to get dressed. We didn’t bring anything for her to do (since she normally plays in the pool the whole time) so we gave her the camera to take pictures—which she LOVED. These were the best two. 🙂