Productive Date Night

Thursday evening, John and I attended a workshop seminar entitled "Managing Challenging Behaviors" sponsored by the Early Childhood Center where Kyle attends preschool. The seminar focused on techniques for managing challenging behaviors, learning the functions of problem behavior, how to identify the function of behavior, and how to teach a replacement behavior which achieves the same function.

We thought this would be beneficial to attend, to assist us with managing some of Kyle's not so "wonderful" behaviors. What we have learned is that Kyle's behavior issues are attention seeking. He tends to "act out" when he isn't getting the attention he wants (or thinks he deserves) from us. Most of the time, he wants our undivided attention and will go to great lengths in order to achieve his goal. Honestly, we didn't come home with as much knowledge on the subject as we were hoping, but we did learn one important fact. Based on the attendance at the workshop, we certainly are not the only parents struggling with some difficult behaviors. We were able to speak with another couple who has a son about the same age, and it was helpful to hear what they have experienced with their son. It was a small world because their son was also born prematurely and spent time in the same NICU where Kyle was for eighty six days.

After the workshop, we did eat dinner at a great Italian restaurant...Rich and Charlie's. Kyle was with a sitter while we were away and they seemed to have a great time together...doing crafts, reading, playing with trains, etc. It's always comforting to know that he is comfortable with babysitters and doesn't have a tough time with the separation....this proves he is growing up!!

Preschool Changes

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, 2010 has been a year of change for The Spence Family. Along with the big changes in John's work, Kyle also was transferred to a new school/classroom after the holiday break. Since Kyle turned three, he has been enrolled in the Early Childhood Preschool offered by the school district. When Kyle began the program, the only morning openings available were at an elementary school location. Kyle has really enjoyed his time at this school setting and became comfortable with the teachers, therapists, and classroom assistants. In the fall, it was decided between John, me, and the early childhood staff that it would in Kyle's best interest to transfer to a classroom at the actual Early Childhood Center. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone who was working with Kyle, but know that we need to do what is best for Kyle and his developmental success. The staff feels they will be able to keep a closer eye on Kyle to assist in particular areas he is having a more difficult time with.

Kyle has been attending his new school since the beginning of January, but I feel as though he hasn't been in a consistent, normal routine due to snow days, holidays, and teacher developmental days. Kyle (and I) had a rough time for several weeks with the adjustment, with tears at drop off. At his old school, I would drop Kyle off in a car pool line, and at his new school, I need to walk him into the building, to the classroom. Honestly, this was a hard adjustment for me as well, especially on very cold, snowy, rainy days and not to mention the craziness which goes along with finding a parking place. I'm leaning towards letting Kyle ride the school bus beginning next year. The preschool buses are smaller than a regular bus and there is a helper who rides on the bus to straps the children in so I do feel it would be a safe option. We also really like Kyle's new teacher...she is great with the children and is so easy going and laid back. It was also comforting to know that his new teacher had worked with Kyle a little during summer school, so she was familiar with him and glad to have him join her classroom.

Kyle is making so much progress in school, especially in the speech and language area, which is so very exciting for us. It's so much fun to actually be able to have a "little" conversation with Kyle! He is still receiving speech/language therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. He has recently started music therapy and according to the therapist notes he seems to be doing very well during his sessions. We have a parent/teacher conference scheduled in a couple of weeks and we are anxious to hear all the good things they will have to say about Kyle's progress. Although, Kyle is making great strides in many areas, he still has plenty of "catching up" to do, but have complete faith he will catch up to his peers.

Friendship Day Party!

This morning Kyle had his Friendship Day Party at preschool. The school district doesn't use the term Valentine's Day for religious reasons, so hence the name Friendship Day. The party was during the last hour of school...complete with a card exchange, crafts, games, and of course party food! The children decorated shoe boxes with pictures and hearts to put their cards and other goodies in. Kyle brought a fun, festive, holiday bag for each of his classmates. Inside the bag was two boxes of sweetheart candy and two small size play-doh containers. It seems the majority of preschool age children love candy and play-doh, so I figured it was a good combination. He also gave his classmates a picture search Valentines card. I'm sure a good time was had by all celebrating the true meaning of Valentine's Day...Friendship!

Kyle is all set and ready to head to his Friendship Day Party!

Goodie bags for his classmates.

Back To School

Today was Kyle's first day back to school....his second year of preschool through the local school district. Kyle is attending school in the same location as last year, although he does have a new teacher, new assistant, new therapists, and a new classroom. John and I were a little hesitant that so many things were changing, however change can be postive...a "fresh" set of eyes focusing on Kyle. We believe it will be a great year for Kyle...hopefully in many different developmental areas.

Yesterday, we atttended an open house to meet his new teacher and see his new surroundings. Kyle walked right in the classroom without any hestiation and began surveying the new room and playing with the toys. We were able to have a little one on one time with his teacher to discuss specific things about Kyle. It will take everyone involved a short while to get up to speed on where Kyle is developmentally, but I'm certain the transition will be very smooth. There are a couple of the same children in his class as last year, so it is nice for him to have some familar faces. Also, with only ten children in his class, he will have the opportunity for more one on one time with the teachers, therapists, and assistants to assist him in obtaining his yearly school goals. I have added several pictures of Kyle from his first day "Back To School"!

Off to school

Sporting his new personalized

firetruck backpack

Summer Officially Begins

Summer is finally here for Kyle! He has been attending summer school (extended school year) for six weeks and yesterday was his last day. Kyle has four weeks off before the new school year begins. It will certainly be nice not to have to get up and be somewhere by a particular time. We will certainly enjoy sleeping a little later in the morning and moving at a slower pace than normal. They don't call it the lazy days of summer for nothing..right? We will enjoy plenty of Mommy/Son quality time the next month filled with plenty of fun activities to keep my little busy body on the move.

Today we have received a nice treat to begin Kyle's summer vacation....cooler, more pleasant temperatures rather than the typical record breaking heat we tend to see this time of year in St. Louis. Kyle spent the morning playing at the park enjoying the lovely weather. It's so hard to stay indoors when it's so nice outside...we must take advantage of the nice break while it lasts! We are looking forward to the weekend...Saturday is date night, so that is always a special treat! Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!

Back To School...Already?

After being out of school for only one week, Kyle headed back to school this morning. He will be attending school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for six weeks where he will be receiving speech and occupational therapy. The main purpose for Kyle to attend summer school is for him not to loose any of the skills acquired during the school year. Thankfully, he has the same teacher, teacher assistant, speech therapist, and occupational therapist; however, the school location is different. I was hesitant, that he would be upset this morning when I dropped him off since it was a new environment. He did have an unhappy look on his face, but luckily it only lasted a few seconds. I was very relieved to hear that he had a great day!!! Here's hoping that Thursday will be another good day!

Beach Vacation Day

Today was Beach Vacation Day for Kyle's class in celebration of the last day of school. The children were asked to wear beach attire to school and parents were asked to apply the necessary sunscreen since the class would be outside for over an hour playing water games. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. With rain off and on this morning and cooler temperatures the beach party was moved indoors. I'm sure all the children had a good time despite not being able to head outside to play in the water. I will have to make it up to Kyle in the near future and have his very own beach vacation day in our very own backyard!

Kyle decked out and ready to head to the beach!

Striking a pose!

Kyle's beach attire wouldn't be complete without a

Thomas the Train beach towel!

Our Token of Appreciation

Today is Kyle's last day of preschool for this school year. Kyle has really enjoyed school and has progressed so much in so many areas. I'm so proud of my little boy! Kyle's teacher, three assistants, and his three therapists are wonderful and we attribute Kyle's progress to their hard work and dedication. As a token of our appreciation, we wanted to give a little end of the year gift to each of them. The gift is a "Movie Night" theme. Included is a gift card to a video store, popcorn, and a box of candy, as well as a card "signed" by Kyle with his picture and a little note from our family. I received this gift idea on a mom's message board and I really thought it was such a cute, creative idea. I hope Kyle's teachers enjoy their gift.

Future Monet In The Making?

Last month, the local school district hosted an Art Fair. I was very surprised to learn that a piece of Kyle's artwork was selected to be on display at the fair. Unfortunately, I found this out after the fair took place so we didn't attend the fair to see Kyle's artistic debut. If I do say so myself, I think his "masterpiece" is very impressive for a three year old. We plan to frame the artwork and display it in Kyle's playroom.

Class Photo

Last month Kyle's preschool class had their picture taken along with his teacher, assistants (otherwise known as para-professionals), and the speech therapist. Since the picture was taken two little boys have joined the class! Kyle is by far the smallest child in the class, but the age range of the students is 3-5 year olds so Kyle is one of the younger ones in the class. Kyle definitely still wants to hold on to his nickname of "My Little Munchkin". Plus they do say "Good things come in small packages."

Easter Gift Bags

This morning was Kyle's last day of preschool before Easter Sunday, so Kyle delivered little holiday gift bags to each of the children in his class. Included in the bag was an Easter sticker book and an Easter egg filled with M&M's (Love the dollar section at Target!). I filled the cute little bags with Easter grass and put the goodies on top and finished the bag off with a little tag which read...Happy Easter! From, Kyle. I realize this isn't necessary to do for his class, but I really enjoy doing this and in the end hope it puts a smile on the children's faces when they find what is hidden inside.

Bear-y Fun!

Kyle had a Bear-Y good day at preschool this morning! Today, each of the children brought their favorite stuffed bear with them to school. Well, the size of the bear was restricted to one which would fit into a backpack...so they weren't able to bring "life size" bears. During morning Circle Time the children shared the bears and then they sorted them by size, color, or other characteristics. What a fun, creative, yet educational way to bring together something which is special to each of the children, but have them learn from it as well.

Kyle has a few different bears...all the same color...baby blue! He had a couple which watched over him for eighty six days in the NICU so we thought it would be perfect for him to share one of these bears with his class.

Moving Along

Yesterday was Kyle's parent-teacher conference at his preschool. John and I planned to attend the meeting together and I arranged for a friend to watch Kyle. With my cough and Kyle's cough still lingering I felt it best that I not attend the meeting, so John went alone. I was very disappointed to miss the meeting since I was anxious to receive the full details on Kyle's progress at school. The meeting included Kyle's teacher and his three therapists. The conference is restricted to a twenty minute time frame so quite a bit of information is covered in a short period of time. I did send John to the meeting armed with a list of questions and we also received a copy of the progress notes in full detail.

Kyle has an education plan in place with detailed goals to hopefully be achieved by the end of the school year. The goals are in many different areas of development...from classroom discipline, school routine, interaction with other children, fine motor skills, speech/language skills, and physical therapy. Kyle is making progress toward his annual goals in all areas of his education plan. All the staff involved had a very encouraging report about Kyle's development. Although, progress still needs to be made, we are so pleased that he continues to move in the right direction. I'm just happy that he still enjoys school and always has such a big smile when I drop him off each day, which at this age is very important!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DR. SEUSS!

Kyle's preschool classroom will be celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday this week...March 2-5, 2009. Each day the class will be doing a "Study of Seuss"....which means they will be reading books written by Dr. Seuss. Kyle has several books at home he will bring to school to share with the class...Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, and Oh, The Places You'll Go! The class will also be doing various large and small group activities related to Dr. Seuss books...such as playing rhyming games and balancing objects like The Cat in the Hat. Wednesday is Wear Your Favorite Shoes Day and they will be reading The Foot Book. Each child is asked to wear their favorite pair of shoes this day. Unfortunately, Kyle doesn't really have a favorite pair of shoes, considering for the winter months he only has two pairs. He does have a pair of Thomas the Train tennis shoes that light up when he walks which are a little big for him that he always wants to wear so I assume those will be the shoes he wears on Wednesday.

I remember reading Dr. Seuss books as a child. A couple of books I enjoyed were Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Did you read Dr. Seuss when you were a child...if so what were your favorites? What are your children's favorite books by Dr. Seuss?

Happy Mardi Gras

HAPPY MARDI GRAS

FROM THE SPENCES

Being from New Orleans, I obviously grew up with Mardi Gras, traveling from one parade to the next, attempting to catch every bead and doubloon that came my way! I would love for Kyle to have the opportunity to experience Mardi Gras as he grows up. Kyle has been once when he was sixteen months old and I know he won't remember the trip. We were just in New Orleans last month so we weren't able to make another trip so soon, but I would love to make it an annual tradition for our family!

We had to have our own little family celebration here in St. Louis...including decorating the entrance to our house with Mardi Gras decorations.

Recently, Kyle received a little Mardi Gras "care package" from CeCe and Poppy (my parents) who still live in New Orleans. The package included the Mardi Gras shirt he is wearing in the pictures above and purple, green, and gold beads to give to his classmates. To dress it up, I packaged the beads in purple bags and made Happy Mardi Gras tags. Kyle wore his Mardi Gras shirt to preschool today and also brought the gift bags! As mentioned in a previous post, we brought a king cake back from our recent trip for Kyle's preschool class to enjoy! I enjoy helping to bring additional fun to his preschool experience!

HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friendship Day

Kyle's preschool class celebrated Friendship Day today. Apparently, some schools are now calling the holiday "Friendship Day" instead of Valentine's Day because of the religious meaning. Kyle had the option to hand out Friendship cards to fellow classmates. Kyle brought the cards below to his friends...the front of the card says "Happy Friendship Day" with fun, colorful sticker letters and the inside of the card says "Thanks for being my friend..Your friend, Kyle." I also added a few school themed stickers inside the card as well. I hope the other children like the cards...they are only ages 3-5 so probably not, but I did want Kyle to participate.

The February theme for Kyle's class is "pizza". Many activities have focused around pizza...books they are reading and pizza server for pretend play. To help celebrate Friendship Day they also had a pizza party at school today. Each parent was asked to provide an ingredient...we were signed up to bring English Muffins (used as the crust). Each child was able to make their very own pizza. I'm sure it was a lot of fun for the children!

Kyle's teacher does make the class a lot of fun, yet educational for the children's development. We really like his teacher and we are hoping he will continue in her class for the next two years until he enters kindergarten.

Kyle also made John and me a Valentine's Day card.

I love how the sign for "I Love You" is incorporated in the card.

*I apologize for the quality of the picutures.

Mom Of The Day?

Yesterday on Facebook I listed 25 things about myself. One of the items I listed was..."I strive everyday to be a good mother to Kyle". I jinxed myself by making this statement...soon after things went downhill. On my way to pick Kyle up from preschool I was a few minutes early and decided to drive around, instead of sitting in my car outside of his school. After driving for a short time, I realized I may be late and was driving a little too fast. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a gas station parking lot talking to a police officer. Yes, I was pulled over for speeding! I explained I was on my way to pick my son up from preschool and I was scheduled to be there NOW. The officer went back to his car for what seemed like an eternity, he came back and only gave me a warning, which I was very thankful for, but I was still LATE! I finally made it to school. I pull up to the pickup area and there is poor Kyle and his teacher waiting for me. I felt terrible and so incredibly guilty and simply apologized for my tardiness. The last thing I wanted to do was explain to his teacher why I was so late.

My next "Mommy moment" occurred yesterday evening. We went as a family on a quick outing. Before we left I put Kyle's stroller in the car and we headed on our way. After arriving to our destination, I took the stroller out of the car, John puts Kyle in the stroller and we realize something is seriously wrong with the stroller. John realized one of the wheels fell off and of course it wasn't in the car...it was at home in the garage. It was the perfect ending to my "Mom of the Day" award.

Obviously, yesterday I wasn't worthy of wearing the ribbon shown above. There are some days I just can't get it together and yesterday was certainly one of those days. I'm hoping today will be much better and I may be worthy to wear the ribbon. We shall see...it's still early in the day!

Do you have these kind of days? Hopefully I'm not the only one! Here's to a wonderful day...it is Friday after all!

Ice Skating???

The lake located in our neighborhood was one large sheet of ice the past couple of days. Yesterday, I took a walk to the area to take a picture of the neighborhood "ice skating rink". The many ducks which call this lake "home" had to find temporary housing while the water was frozen. The temperatures are warming up today so the ice will be melted and the ducks can move back in.

I am not a very good ice skater...I'm very clumsy and fall quite a bit. There was an ice skating rink close by our house when I was growing up so I would have fun attempting to ice skate. In St. Louis, their is a nice oudoor ice skating rink in Forest Park called Steinberg Ice Rink. John and I have been once and would love to go back at some point in the future. We haven't attempted to take Kyle ice skating yet, but believe it or not he did ice skate at preschool during his physical therapy session. How, you might ask...shaving cream with no shoes on. The same day he roller skated as well. I would have enjoyed having the opportunity to watch those moves!

Neighborhood Lake covered with ice.

Temporary housing for the ducks.

New Orleans King Cake

Since Mardi Gras time is quickly approaching, I bought a king cake to bring back for Kyle's preschool class. This morning, his class enjoyed king cake as their snack. The king cake is one of the many traditions which commemorates Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I sure was getting the Mardi Gras fever during our visit, but unfortunately we won't have the opportunity to head back to New Orleans for the celebration. St. Louis does celebrate Mardi Gras, so we may head to the city to enjoy the parades and festivities which are offered.

Back In The Swing

It's time to get back into the swing of our normal routine since Kyle had eighteen days off from preschool and John had seventeen days off from work. Wow, that sure was a long time, but it certainly did go by very fast. We enjoyed the holidays and spending each and everyday together as a family.

Kyle had plenty of good times...moving into his new room (pics to come in the near future), a visit with Ce Ce and Poppy (my parents), a visit from Santa, and plenty of playtime. As enjoyable as the holidays are it is nice to get back to our everyday life in our tiny part of the world. We are slowly regaining control of our house and putting the Christmas decorations away. Kyle seemed very happy to go to school this morning and had a great day which I was very happy about since he was gone from school for so long.

Our normal routine won't last for very long since we are leaving next week for a road trip to New Orleans for my high school reunion. It was scheduled several months ago, but cancelled due to a hurricane. We are looking forward to our stay in The Big Easy. I really want Kyle to have the opportunity to learn about New Orleans since it will always be my home away from home.