Our Honor Student

Porter's school had an honor assembly the other day to recognize those students that have completed certain milestones in their learning. Porter received three award certificates: for being able to recognize the numbers 0-20, for being able to recognize his alphabet, both lower and upper case, and for knowing how to count to 100. He was the only one in his class to receive all three awards and one of 2 or 3 in the whole kindergarten to receive all three. He is doing so well in school. I had a parent/teacher conference a week ago and Mr. Ortega (his teacher) had nothing but good things to say about Porter. Porter is getting really good at sounding out words and his teacher is going to get him reading. Porter is already reading some at home and can write sentences - but the cutest thing is how he spells words because he spells them phonetically. I always knew the english lanuage had some weird rules and exceptions, but I'm finding out it's really out of control; I have to explain a lot about silent this and sounding like that as I help Porter spell and sound things out. But we are sure proud of him and hope he always keeps up the good work.

Andrew had his 18 month well check today. For being my biggest baby (which isn't saying much considering he was only 6 lbs. 4 oz.) he is sure a tiny, little person. He is finally over 20 lbs. - he weighed in at 21 lbs. and is 31 inches long. But for being so little, he has one of the biggst personalities I have ever seen. He is always moving, screaming, talking, or doing something. One of his favorite things to do is draw with the crayons or markers and he loves to sweep. He's also one of the most observant children I have ever seen. He picks up actions and can know how to do something after watching only once or twice. And he's my most helpful child - he loves to help put the clean cups away or put things in the trash; I just wish that would rub off on my other boys....

Zach is well, Zach. He has to be my most interesting child. He can be so tough and loud (!!); yet he hates louds noises and scary situations. Today the boys got their flu shots and after watching both Porter and Andrew get theirs without crying, I was hoping that Zach would be brave. But he was so scared of it and cried and cried. I tried to explain that yes, it would hurt, but only for a couple of seconds and then it would be all done. The nurse was so patient as I tried to talk Zach into laying on the table so she could adminster the shot. But he wasn't going to have it and I ended up having to force him down and hold him down on the table. He's definitely one of a kind.

Anyways, the weather is cold here in Albuqerque. It's like the weather all of a sudden just turned on the cold. Which means it's the end of being able to hang out outside. I guess I better start finding all my inside activities...