It’s kind of turning into a game, to get to change his clothes. -Mrs. Kim

When this first started happening we thought something happened in the bathroom at school that suddenly traumatized Jonah, keeping him from wanting to go poop there. But after several weeks of pleading, bribing, scolding, ignoring, and being all around frustrated, it’s become pretty clear that he’s not traumatized, and he knows when he needs to use the bathroom. The kid regularly squeezes out some seriously monster logs, so it’s not a physical issue. It appears to be some kind of game for him, or a battle of the wills. What Jonah doesn’t understand is that I’ve been willful 36 years longer than he has. My will win out.

So, as promised yesterday if he didn’t do better pooping at school, Jonah will be put in diapers today and will go back to the other building, in the toddler’s class. So far the only thing to upset him when we talk about pooping in his pants, is the threat of diapers. So let’s see if that does the trick. Besides, you have no idea how sick I am of cleaning out poopy underwear that’s been sitting in a plastic bag all afternoon. Ugh.

If anyone out there has an idea as to other solutions to this problem, please share. I’m all ears!

Of course, that’s not to say that we won’t move before he’s out of school–in fact it would be really odd if we were still on Lake Alden for the next 10 years, but you never know. I like my home. 🙂 We also have to consider Jonah. There’s no way to afford FLEC for both of them, when Jonah starts kindergarten in a few years, so he will likely start Apopka, where Zachary is now.

There are a few other, personal reasons, for the switch, but this post isn’t about me. 😀

As for totally screwing Zachary up before he moves out on his own some day, only time will tell. I have plenty of other opportunities to mess him up major decisions to make on his behalf between now and then.

In 16 years, either I will have two kids in college and I can pat myself on the back for a job well done, or I will have the best party $50,000 can buy. We just beat the deadline to lock in the current rates for the Florida pre-paid college plan, and I have now agreed to dish out over $200/month for the next 12 years to ensure that Zachary and Jonah will at least have their college tuitions paid for.

In these economic times, the thought of parting with another $200 a month doesn’t thrill me. The thought, however, of my boys having the opportunity to attend college and not worry about where the tuition is coming from does thrill me. Oh, and not having to pay the projected $141,000 (EACH) to send them tickles my fancy too. 🙂

This post was generously brought to you by Outer Banks rentals. The boys don’t go to college, I could buy a few rentals of my own!

I know, totally lame and obvious title, but you know it’s true! I have always loved to read and from birth, both Zachary and Jonah have been surrounded by books. It seems to be working—Jonah drags books around like a security blanket, proclaiming “moose,” or “butterfly!” depending on what book he has latched on to.

Zachary was the same way—he’s always loved books and has been reading them with me from the age of 2. Now he’s in kindergarten and learning to really read, not just memorize the words. I’ll tell you this, there is nothing else quite like listening to your child read to you for the first time. Watching the reading process unfold in a child is amazing. Now I can’t find new books fast enough. Luckily, I have the internet to help in my search. If I wasn’t online, I wouldn’t have come across Frecklebox and their personalized books.

First, I don’t know who loves getting mail more, me or Zachary. When I told him he had a package in the mail he about ran me over in his attempt to get to the door. The surprise was unexpected—I didn’t tell him about the book. I think I picked a winner, because the book “Zachary Goes to the Zoo” was an instant hit. He thinks having a book with his name on every page is, and I quote, “awesome!“.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the book. It was a little more expensive than an average soft-bound book, however, being personalized on every page and not just the title page made it worth the extra expense. And I was able to add my own dedication. 🙂

The quality of the images is impressive. Very sharp and colorful. ((Even Chris mentioned this, which is surprising since he doesn’t usually notice things like this.)) There are just enough pages to hold Zachary’s interest, but not so many that he gets bored. Hiding his name within every picture for him to find just added to the fun.

I’m so happy with this book I’ve decided to get one of the Personalized coloring books for Jonah. ((Coloring is his favorite thing in the word right now.)) Maybe if I have enough of them, he’ll stop coloring on himself. 😉

Yep, that’s right. Zachary started kindergarten today. While I’m really excited for him, I can’t help but be a little sad, too. Kindergarten actually means s-c-h-o-o-l. Which actually means he’s not a little boy anymore (sniff).

We are very fortunate that he has the opportunity to attend FLEC (Forest Lake Education Center). FLEC is a private, Christian school with an exceptional curriculum. Of course, in my biased opinion, any private curriculum has to be better than the FLA public school’s curriculum. Add to that the fact that Orange county cut $70 million from this year’s school budget, which means:

• fewer teachers;
• the non-reappointment of hundreds of annual contract teachers (translation: art, music and PE teachers);
• the cutting of programs like environmental education and united arts;

just to note a few of the highlights (or lowlights).

Then there’s the actual quality of the education public students receive. The school we are zoned for, Apopka Elementary, does not inspire much confidence in me—it is ranked #1287 out of #1818 for the state of Florida. Sure, that means there are 531 schools ranking worse—but that also means there are 1286 schools that rank better. While FLEC doesn’t list a ranking since it’s private, I’m going to make a bold assumption and assume it would be ranked MUCH higher than #1287.

Okay, I’m off my soapbox. 🙂 This post is about Zachary, who is in big-kid school now. His teacher is Mrs. Schonert and he already has a friend in class—Mike and Angela’s daughter, Kai. I’m not sure exacly how many students are in his class, but it looks to be approximately 15. That’s a pretty good student/teacher equation. We’ve also heard nothing but great things about Mrs. Schonert, so we’re excited for Zachary. I can’t wait to pick him up this afternoon and hear all about his day.

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. -Edgar W. Howe

To read about Zachary’s week before kindergarten, check out “the Goose.”