Watch out for Redheads...and homework

I have to be out of town for the few days to go to a tech conference, so tonight I was doing my best to get Tucker organized.  Each night he has homework to do to help him learn good study behaviors.  (These are words from his teacher's newsletter.)  So, I was trying to get him to do as much of the homework as we could together, so that he didn't have to rely so much on his daddy.  They tend to get busy playing and forget about that kind of stuff when I am not around!  Part of Tucker's homework was just to properly write upper case and lowercase ABC's.  Sounds easy enough, right?  We are doing fine until we hit G.  For some reason, Tuckers starts losing concentration and does a lower case a, then q, pretty much every letter but lowercase g.  Let's just say I really don't have a lot of patience anyway, and this just about did me in.  So, I just got up from the table and told him to finish his homework on his own, and I start cleaning the dinner dishes.  Tucker huffs at me and says, "So, I guess it's true what they say about redheads...they ARE violent."  I couldn't help but giggle a little bit when he said this since I had my back to him anyway and all I did was get up and do the dishes.  I don't know where he heard that, but I would like to exchange "impatient" for "violent", please. :0)  I can't wait to hear how John and Tucker do with the rest of the homework this week. 

Last Weekend of Lake Fun

Labor Day for us means that it is the last weekend to spend at our lake cabin. There is sadness because the lazy days of summer are officially over and there is a little bit of excitement knowing that we are in the beginnings of a new school year and upcoming fall season. We spend our time at the lake with mom & dad doing the usual...riding the jet ski and boating. Tucker's cousin Eleanor came along on Saturday with my brother and Tucker played with her in the lake. They found our kayak and Tucker paddled Eleanor around. She looked like a little queen telling Tucker to go faster or turn around.

We enjoyed hot dogs by the lake, which for some reason makes them taste better than just having them at home. Dad and Jeff also grilled bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese. Very yummy!! We all swam and ate while John and Willy fished. It was a nice, lazy weekend at the lake for us all.

Another one bites the dust

I guess Tucker became tired of only having 1 front tooth out. I had a feeling that he would figure out a way to get rid of the other front tooth. By the time I picked him up from school today, he had yanked the other tooth out. Once again, I had to do a little bit of my happy dance just because I didn't have to deal with it. So, for now we have a really wide non-toothy grin.

He was so excited that he is now missing his two front teeth! I thought he was happy because the tooth fairy would be visiting again. However, I overheard him tell his daddy, "I am like a real hockey player now, since I am missing my teeth." Should have know it had something to do with hockey!

Toothy Tuesday

As I picked up Tucker this afternoon from after school care, he met me with this big partially toothy grin. He pulled his front top tooth out this afternoon after school! We went to his dentist a couple of weeks ago, so I knew that his front teeth were getting loose, but I still didn't expect it to happen this soon. So far, Tucker has lost three teeth and they have all been remove during school. I am actually very happy about that because for some reason the thought of pulling teeth just really seems yucky and gross to me. So, I was just a little bit excited that this big event happened away from my eyes.

I was concerned about how Tucker would take not having a front tooth, but he is doing great. (He does seem to care about the way he looks these days.) He said that it is hard to say "s" sounds, but he also told me that he would manage. He goes around smiling just hoping that someone will notice that he is missing a tooth, almost like a trophy or something. That's my child, never one to shy away from attention or being able to tell a story! Now, we just have to wait for front tooth #2 to come out which I think is probably just a few days away. I have caught him trying to wiggle it, so Tucker is pretty determined to get it out too. Let's cross our fingers that his teacher gets lucky enough to deal with this one too.

First Day of First Grade

Today was the first day of first grade for Tucker. He seemed a little bit excited and a little bit nervous. We had our backpack ready and clothes laid out anticipating the first day.

This year seems to be a bit easier for us all since it is our second year to be at this school. Tucker is familiar with the layout of the campus and even seems to know most of the faculty. (Not sure if this is a good thing, though.) The principal and assistant principal knows him by name and both gave him a big hug on Meet the Teacher night. I guess they are ready for the munchkins to be back, too.

After meet the teacher night on Friday, he was able to see that he already knew a lot of kids from last year, so he was excited about having friends in his classroom. I was excited to see his new teacher and learn that she has about 10 years of teaching experience and a son entering kindergarten. I think that we can relate!

Tucker has had a fabulous summer, but I think that he was ready to return to school. Throughout the morning while getting dressed, he kept repeating, "I can't believe that I am a first grader!" I don't think that I could get him to school fast enough! He was ready to go and get on with the day.

His only disappointment was learning that I was going to walk him into the classroom on the first day of school. You would have thought that I was making him walk around in public without any clothes on! He tried every tactic he could think of to keep me from walking in the building, but I was just as determined to see him to his desk! I really don't know where he gets his stubbornness from. So, we made it to the classroom along with every other classmate AND THEIR PARENTS. Once Tucker was safely in his little desk. I gave a little wave goodbye (I promised not to kiss and hug him at school) and headed out the only to glance back and see him already talking to the other kids at his desk, laughing away.

Real or Fake?

Tucker seems to have time on his brain constantly. Everyday all day long he is asking, "how many minutes will that take?" I usually give him an estimate of time, but sometimes I will say that "whatever" will happen 'in just a minute'. I tell him that I am cooking supper and he wants to know how long it will take. If we watch a movie, he asks again, how many minutes long is the movie? I am not even sure that he understands the concept of a minute or not, but he loves to ask about it!

On Saturday, he wanted to play a game and I was in the middle of folding laundry. Not that it takes much for me to give up folding the laundry, but I did tell him that I would play "in a minute." I watched him walk away, but then he paused and turned to me and said "Are you talking about a REAL minute or a FAKE one"? I guess his concept of time is a little better than I thought.

We are Jammin'

After a morning of eating picking strawberries, we went back home with Oma and Peepaw to start making our favorite (and requested) fresh strawberry jam. Oma had all of the ingredients ready and waiting for us.

We started by washing the strawberries and then Oma and I cut off the tops of the strawberries while Tucker had the job of smashing the strawberries with the potatoe masher. I must say that Tucker's job looked like a lot of fun to me! I don't really know how many strawberries were smashed in the process of jam making, but Tucker grew kind of tired of smashing after a while. There is only so much fun that can be had right?

Moving on to the next phase, we then added A LOT of sugar to the smashed stuff. We were able to rest for 10 minutes while the sugar and strawberries did their thing, then we added the Certo gel and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Tucker then had to stir the mixture for 3 more minutes. Then it was time to put the jam in the jars. This was my job since it can get kind of messy, but Tucker continued to watch and make sure that he knew which jars "his jam" was put in. We continued this process the rest of the afternoon unitl we had about 25 jars ready and finished. Now, I just have to figure out how to get this stuff back to Texas to share with some of you. Heide keeps laughing as we buy more and talk about bringing all kinds of things with us. There really is a limit to what the Cherolla can hold you know. :0)