Reading club

Andy is in reading club at the request of his teacher. Apparently there are two kinds of reading club here. One is an enrichment, "You're doing great, let's do more reading! Crime and Punishment anyone?" kind of club. The second is more, "Your reading could be better. Let's meet after school once a week."

I was surprised to get the call from his teacher as I didn't realize it was a problem -- it's not like there are grades that matter in first grade per se. But after talking with her, she explained that he just didn't really like reading so he wasn't progressing so she wanted to get him over the hump, so to speak. And it's true, he just didn't like to read so it was always pulling teeth to get him engaged.

After talking to lots of other parents with his age, I realized that it's a really common thing and that there seem to be kids on all levels of the spectrum. I also realized that him and me fighting over getting him to read wasn't great so I hired a tutor to work with him once a week.

I must say, that's been the biggest difference. Reading club has been off and off due to the health of his teacher, but meeting with the tutor, he's managed to go from hating to read to wanting to read quietly in his room at night. It's been the most amazing shift to go from hating it to loving it. It also helps that we found some books he likes. Someone recommended The Spiderwick Chronicles which are great. We've also been reading some of the Magic Tree House series (there are only about 163 of those so we've got a lot to read). It has just been totally cool to see the transformation from non-reader to loving to read.

Here are a couple of the Egan family holiday pictures. I thought I was getting the whole CD from mom, but I managed to only get two pictures. At least they're good ones.

Sony Alpha Nex

As an early anniversary present, Bjorn got me a new camera, the Sony Alpha Nex-3. This is the new kind of camera that is small but has almost the same shutter speed and capabilities as a big DSLR but at a fraction of the cost and size. I've been taking pictures like crazy, partly because it's so easy to take 10 all at once and delete the bad ones. Here are some of the ones that made the cut.

Andy and Barrett playing Bakery Story.

These kids are fascinated with putting their bikes upside down and "fixing" them. It seems very familiar.

She's quite intense when scooting. Plus, shoes are for the Suri Cruise's of the world.

He does this funny thing when he's chilling, he spins in circles.

Andy's school obsession, a game called First in Math that we have a log in through the school. He's so proud as he's the second highest in the class consistently. He's definitely got Bjorn's math skillz.

Seriously? Look how pretty this kid is? The skin, lips and eyelashes just blow me away. And look what a great shot it is? Love this camera. And obviously I'm a gifted photographer.

See how gifted I am?

Andy really wanted to do the rock climbing wall at school during the fall festival. It was pretty cool. The whole rock climbing wall folds up onto a trailer to take away at the end. It was a little more advanced for him but I know we'll be back to do this kind of thing again.

She is totally the Ghostest with the Mostest.

I love the hair! And the dancing.

Mommy's little axe murdered, I mean, firefighter.

Bjorn and Fafa. We were scouting out Grapevine Mills for the Big Bennett Family Christmas this December. I totally want to take the kids to Legoland. It looks awesome.

Andy loved this spinning teacup.

Obi-Wan at Book Character Day at school. We don't call it Halloween here. Some of the Religious Right are very against pagan holidays like this.

Margaret and Fafa reading. Meg was so happy to have her grandmother to read her this book. She's also wearing her other Halloween shirt, "Out of Candy: Need Refill."

One very happy Batman (Batwoman?) with her loot.

My boy can read, ya'll

I know! How awesome is that? It's exciting! And, dammit, is shortly the end of spelling what we don't want him to hear.

Andy was sent home with a few very short books to read to us over Christmas vacation. That ends tomorrow so naturally I pulled those out tonight (along with his lunchbox from 2 1/2 weeks ago including some moldy apples. Yum!) He had a very short book on building a snowman, but he read it. He'd never seen it before and, sure, he struggled with a few of the words and had to sound them out. But he actually sounded them out (normally he gets frustrated with me and quits) and finished. I am so proud.

In less than two weeks, my boy turns 6. Dang, time hasn't flown necessarily, but six years? Come on, universe. That does seem awfully fast. I've made the executive decision to host a "half sleepover" for seven kids. The idea is they come over in their pajamas, play some games, eat pizza and cake, tear apart the house and watch a movie. My sister pointed out that the other parents should be psyched about the party since they might be able to go to dinner and a movie in that time.

So now that I've got to come up with some games. Ideas?

And now, I present some unrelated holiday pictures.

Cousin Frances et al with Mom, Dad and Elizabeth.

Dad and Margaret.

Dad presiding over a family meeting. Note the thing on his head along with the wine on the table. We know how to do a business meeting right, people.

iPhone Pictures

Margaret's first hair cut.

This girl has manners. She likes to eat at restaurants with her bare foot on the table.

Andy getting his sticker on the wall for finishing his summer reading list. It was pajama day at school that day, hence the classy outfit.


My dad and Meg in Dallas. How adorable.

Meggie and her babies, Callie and Daisy. The iPhone camera is convenient, but it can be messy. Plus, as you can tell, I'm not so good about remembering to download them.

Boo!

I have a baby board book called Baby Boo! (thanks Frances, I think it was a hand-me-down from you actually.) It's got like eight pages and 15 words in the whole thing, so I love to read it too as it doesn't take forever to get through. On one page, you ask where the baby is and on the next page, it says "boo" to a smiling baby's face. In total adorableness, Meg now says "boo" when we read it, sometimes even on the right page!

She's getting so interactive right now I just love it.

Upper management

It snowed here yesterday. It was truly beautiful. We got a good 3-4 inches in Fairfax, enough that the roads were a little messy, but it never got below freezing so it wasn't so bad. We're expecting a big cold snap this weekend so it was imperative to get the driveway and sidewalks cleared before they froze solid. Bjorn and Mark spent some time clearing and Andy "helped" by holding a hoe and "digging." Apparently he did not stop talking the entire time they were working making Mark declare that he was ready for upper management since all he did was talk and not do any work.

The snow also delayed my doctor's appointment from yesterday until today. Apparently the doctor's office cancelled all their afternoon appointments with the theory that it was safer for everyone to reschedule than try to get to see them. Unfortunately, moving it to today meant I had to take Andy with me. Bad since I knew I'd actually have to take my clothes off for this one. I stressed about it, but it turns out all I needed was his Thomas catalog. When my sister sent Andy his birthday present (a cool Thomas tunnel), it came with a catalog of other Thomas items. That catalog is apparently the most interesting publication he's ever seen because he "reads" and rereads it over and over again. At my appointment, he quietly read his catalog and could barely even look up when my doctor talked to him. It ended up working out perfectly.

The other good news about the appointment is the baby seems fine and healthy as do I. The bad news is that she seems perfectly happy where she is. No movement, nada, despite my encouragement that she can go ahead and come out now. This also goes completely against my gut that was telling me the last few days that something was happening. Turns out it was just wishful thinking. Sigh.

Wanted: One pediatric otolaryngologist

As I said earlier, Andy has to go see an ear, nose and throat specialist to talk about his persistent ear infections and if he needs to get tubes. The whole thing makes me unhappy, but I've been asking friends and relatives about it. So far, I've gleaned that the procedure itself is very short, like 10-15 minutes, and the results are great for kids who have been suffering. I also got some good recommendations of pediatric otolaryngologists (say that twice fast) to call.

Of course, this is happening just as we're switching from Guardian/OneNet to Aetna for insurance at work. Absurdly, you can't use the Aetna doctor finder feature unless you're a member, but since I'm not a technically member until June 1, things are complicated. I spent probably 30 minutes with Aetna customer support today in a harrowingly frustrating experience. First, the number I got from HR was for the HMO, not the PPO, so after sitting on hold for 15 minutes, they gave me the PPO number. I eventually got some names and phone numbers of doctors and proceeded to call.

I started with the highly recommended Dr. Choi at Children's Hospital. They'd be happy to see me. In August. I then tried Dr. McBride who luckily can see me...in July. Seriously, is this a big deal or not? I called Dr. Staats' office and played a friendly game of telephone where I explained the situation to the nurse, who talked to Dr. Staats and called me back. I wanted to know if two months was too much wait time. Dr. Staats' office called back to say it was too long to wait. I explained I had tried others and July was the soonest I could get without her intervening to try to bump me up the list. The nurse said she'd see what she said and call me back. She still hadn't called when I left this afternoon.

Anyone have a cousin in one of those offices I can sleep with to get an appointment? Geez. This sounds like the Canadian health system.

What stinks is this is all happening just before we have to get on a plane for Dallas this weekend. Fortunately, it's only three hours and direct, but I hate for his ears to be bothering him on the plane. That would stink worse than his usual restlessness on the plane.

The risk of not fixing his ears is delayed learning because he can't hear, but the funny thing is he is almost reading. Well, by reading I mean he can point to the letters on the page and knows them all. And tonight, he even sounded out a few. Granted, he does call pancakes panpakes and band-aids, band-baids. Those are totally adorable, I just wish if I wasn't so paranoid that his hearing was in such jeopardy.

Check out His Adorableness during a nap the other day. I love that he had completely turned himself around and these crashed on the covers.