Full swing

Hi all...we're in full swing for fall around here. Lots of soccer, piano, Girl Scouts, spelling words, preschool, flu shots, reading, etc. going on. The kids seem to be handling everything well and are enjoying their activities. The big kids have made it through their first six week grading period as of today. Hard to believe they've already completed 6 weeks, but time moves quickly it seems. Emma has made the transition to third grade relatively easily. She's doing well in math and science. Language arts has been a little tougher, but she's working through it. We've started making up cheers for a few of her hard spelling words. I am proud of her this week as she learned to spell recipient very quickly. I thought that word would be difficult, but she got it right away. Woo hoo! Emma also is singing in the school choir this year. Apparently, they are singing a song about duct tape since she goes around singing "duct tape, duct tape" all the time, sometimes even in Latin.

Emma self portrait

Alex decided to run for student council this fall. He came home very excited yesterday after the elections. I was impressed as he had to make a big campaign poster and give a speech in front of the entire 5th grade using a microphone and podium. I definitely wasn't doing that kind of thing in 5th grade. Alex's campaign slogan was "Vote for Alex Buckley for fairness, recycling and no more leaky faucets". I thought it was perfect, a little serious with a touch of humor. Also, during fifth grade, the kids are assigned kindergarten reading buddies. Once a week, the big kids read and do other projects with the little kids. Alex seems to be enjoying it, especially since he now voluntarily goes down to the kindergarten rooms to help the kindergartners with breakfast several days a week. Maybe he's used to little kids since he has Benjamin around all the time. It has been wonderful watching him begin thinking about others and becoming more interested in volunteering. I was talking with the school librarian this week and she said Alex has been coming into the library about once a week to help shelve books. She trusts him so much with shelving that he even gets to do the nonfiction books. Pretty cool.
Yesterday, Benjamin had an appointment with his GI. She is amazed at how well he is doing with eating by mouth. Since his last appointment in June, he gained a half pound. According to her, kids often lose 5-8% of their body weight while they are transitioning off the pump, so she was very pleased with his weight gain. We will continue to give him 1 small feeding at night as he gets more and more used to eating. This feeding will help with vitamins and gives him a small calorie boost. Over the next 6 months, we will keep monitoring him and may consider taking him off the pump completely. After he stop using the pump, she says the normal course is to leave the tube in for 4-6 months without using at all and then it is taken out. The doctors want to make absolutely sure the child won't need it before removing it as it would require surgery to replace it. Plus, it's not really hurting anything to leave it in.As for me, I'm enjoying having the kids in school, including Benjamin. I still haven't gotten into a routine with everything yet as we have had sick kids, school holidays, doctors appointments, etc. My goal is to volunteer at the school library once a week this year. I have made it up there a few times so far. I've also been learning about couponing thanks to my sisters. Last week, I came out of pocket about $5 for over $50 worth of items at Walgreens. Pretty fun, especially for the accountant in me. Of course, I had to make a spreadsheet so I could calculate my savings for the week. Other than that, I spend a lot of time driving kids around, keeping things going at the house, etc. I do enjoy lunches with friends and still love to read whenever I have a chance.

Sean is in his final grind toward tenure review, the process where the university decides whether to offer tenure to assistant professors. He is teaching one class this fall which is nice. He didn't teach this class last fall, so it is taking additional time to review and improve his notes. His office seems like it has a revolving door on it since he often has visits from students in his classes and meetings with his graduate students.

I hope everyone enjoys their fall. It is my favorite time of year. I love all the Halloween decorations and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.