Happy Birthday Little Man

Six years ago today, Tucker came in to our lives. It has only been six years and yet I really don't remember what my life was like without him. What a blessing he has been to my family and me. Tucker is one of those people that you just gravitate to. He just has that personality that makes him stand out...even if it means getting yellows and blues in Kindergarten!

He is smart, stubborn, happy, loving, funny, and just remarkable. I tell him often that I am the luckiest mom in the world to have such a super little man. There are days when we have our moments of fighting, pouting, and just not really wanting to be around each other, but that all passes quickly. As I think about the six short years that have passed, I am amazed at the little boy that he has become and curious about the little man that he will be. When I asked him today what kind of job he wanted when he grew up, he told me that he wanted to go to ice cream college and be in charge of an ice cream store. (I think the fighter pilot job went out the window during the Mt. Everest ride at Disneyworld this year.)

As I put Tucker to bed tonight and kissed him for the last time as a 5-year old, he asked me, "mama, what will I look like tomorrow when I am 6?" We have had this conversation not so long ago, and he has it in his head that he will all of a sudden be taller and older. Boy, he will be disappointed in the morning when he wakes up! He also thought that his days of being a kindergartener was up and that he would start first grade when he turned 6. It is hard to explain to him that it will be next year before he is a first grader and that time just doesn't fly by. Although, now that I think about it...wasn't he just born yesterday?

Lego Day and Presents

Tucker didn't feel well this morning when we woke up, so we stayed home from work and school today. Maybe it was the busy, fun-filled weekend, but he convinced me that he didn't feel well enough to make it through the school day. Most of the morning he watched TV in bed or on the couch, but by the end of the day he seemed to be feeling much better. We spend most of the afternoon building his Lego Starwars village and ship. You don't be jealous, but at one point, Tucker proclaimed me to be the "Lego Master of the World". I guess playing with Legos with my brother when we were younger has finally paid off.

When John came home from work and asked how Tucker how he felt, Tucker replied that he was feeling much better and just needed to take a Lego day. WHAT? Evidently, he just needed an extra day off from school to play with his new Legos!

After dinner we celebrated Tucker's birthday again with cake a presents. He wanted a chocolate cake with strawberries for his birthday, so I just made it for him instead of buying one. It was basically a German Chocolate cake, but I decorated the side with chocolate butter cream. toTucker thought it needed a few extra decorations, so he added the strawberry to the top of the cake. I guess he also needed to taste the frosting, so he put a big hole in the side. Nice touch, T! He finally had had enough of us and and was ready to open presents. I think this is the only time that Tucker will pass up sweet stuff. He really didn't care much for the cake...he just wanted to open the presents! Tornado Tucker opened all of the gifts in about 5 seconds! I barely had time for pictures, but here are a few. I think that he was happy with most of the gifts, especially his new iPod Nano. I had it loaded with lots of Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, and High School Musical songs. I also loaded Spongebob, Scooby Doo, and Jimmy Neutron tv shows. Happy Birthday, T!

More Birthday Fun

After Tanner left on Sunday, Tucker's grandparents came to see him for his birthday and to watch him play soccer. Orginally, we were going to meet them in Denton, but decided to meet at our house instead. They, of course, came bearing gifts of the toy kind. Tucker has been playing a lot with Legos lately. Peaches and Papaw gave him a Lego Star Wars set. The perfect gift for the birthday boy since he loves Legos and Star Wars!

Busy weekend - First sleepover

Tucker's birthday is coming up, so I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday. He first wanted to have an ice skating party, but then he just decided that he wanted to have Tanner over to spend the night. Tanner is Tucker's second cousin and Tucker loves to see Tanner. They are the same age, but they don't usually see other unless it is summer and we are at the lake.
Between working around Tucker's soccer game and Tanner's baseball game on Saturday, we found a time for us to meet up and get Tanner. Once we got him, we started our little stay over with lunch and a movie at Studio Movie Grill. Tucker and I love to go there so that we can eat yummy food like chicken tenders and pizza while we are watching a movie. Tanner thought that it was pretty cool, as well. It is just too bad that the movie, Igor, was not so good. The boys were fine until they ate all of their food and then they were ready to go. I must admit that I felt the same, so we went on home.
Once we returned home, the boys stayed busy swimming, playing with Matchbox cars, light saber fighting, etc. It was a little strange to not be the one constantly entertaining Tucker! Somehow they managed to stay busy until it was time to go to bed. They put up a tent in the living room at one point during the day, so they decided that they would sleep in the tent. Little did I know that I would be the bodyguard sleeping on the couch just behind the tent!
After a good night's sleep, the boys were at it again playing with cars and doing whatever else 5 year old boys do for entertainment. I cooked them blueberry pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. After breakfast, John took the boys to a huge playground in our town for about an hour. Before too long, it was time to send Tanner back to his parents. There were a few little arguments here and there, but overall I think that the boys had a great time. This was the first time that Tucker had a friend over to spend the night and he is ready for Tanner to come back. Hopefully Tanner will be willing!

Jury Duty

So I had jury duty Wednesday and today. When I got to the courthouse, the judge told us that we had a great chance of NOT getting jury duty because they only needed 100 people and there were about 250 in the room. Whew, I thought to myself, slim chance of getting called. The first case came up and needed 24 jurors to select from...of course my name was immediately called and I had to return to the courthouse at 1:30 pm. When we all meet back at 1:30, once again, this judge claims that our chances are pretty good for not getting to be a juror since there were 24 of us, and they only needed six jurors. Whew, I thought again, what are the chances! I should have known that when the song "You've had a bad day" is playing on the radio as you get ready to go into the courthouse, that things are not.looking.good. During the who voir dire process, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Most of the people talking really sounded stupid and so I just thought it would be better to keep quiet. This is probably the ONLY time I have stayed quiet and it came back to bite me! So, I was one of the six to be on the jury. That should be enough bad luck for the day right?
I go home with a knot in my stomach knowing now that I have to be a juror. Oh well, at least I don't know anyone involved with the trail and I will just do my civic duty and be done with it. Ya'll things went from bad to worse on Thursday. I am sitting in my little, uncomfortable juror chair when the prosecution witnesses march in to the courtroom to be sworn in. Oh.my.gosh. I knew one of the witnesses! In my head I am thinking that I am about to cause a mistrail. The whole time that this person is on the stand, I can hardly hear her talk because I am freaking out. My stomach is knotting up, my mind is racing, and I am thinking...should I be honest and tell the judge or just pretend that I don't know her? After about 3 witnesses we finally took a break and I wrote a note to the judge to tell him that I knew one of the witnesses. How crazy is that! Really! What are the odds that I would get picked to be a juror and know one of the witnesses? All I can say is that I am my father's daughter and that it seems that no matter where I go, I seem to know someone. So, after what seemed to be a very long break, the judge made me come back into the courtroom by myself so that they could ask me some questions regarding the relationship between the witness and myself. Yep, there I was...in a courtroom alone with the defense, prosecutor, judge, baliff, court reporter, witnesses and audience. The judge asked me how I knew the witness. I explained that we had graduate class together about 3 years ago and that we had exchanged email during the semester, but that we had not seen or talked to each other since that one class. He asked me if I could still be fair and I replied, "yes". He let me go back to the jury room and then we went on with the trial. I must admit that I had visions of being led to jail and a big ole "mistrial" label stamped across my forehead, but luckily we went on with the trial. Luckily, we were finished with the trail by 5:00 Thursday afternoon. I hope that it is a L-O-N-G time before I have to do that again!

We scored!

Tonight we had a make-up soccer game. As I keep saying, Tucker is really getting better every week and I am so proud of him for that. Now, will he be playing with the likes of David Beckham anytime soon? Um, no, but he is a trooper out there. He even was at the right place at the right time and scored a goal tonight! .

As most of you know, Tucker does not lack in the verbal skills. Tonight I watched him talk smack to the other team. Oh.my. I wanted to run out there and drag him off of the the field! We had to have a little talk about that! I finally had to just tell him to leave the other team alone and do not talk to the other team. When we are winning, he just wants to keep the other team up-to-date with the score.

Where does he get this stuff? He is SO competitive! I keep trying to fool myself into thinking that he didn't get it from me, but then there I am yelling like the little guys are winning the Olympic gold medal in soccer. I really don't even know anything about soccer and yet I find myself yelling loud enough to be heard 5 soccer fields over. Maybe that is why the other soccer moms steer clear of me?

Water Cycle...In Tucker's Words

When I picked up Tucker on Monday, he couldn't wait to talk about what he did in school. He loves science and likes to keep me updated on the science experiments and topics that they learn about each day. Tucker said that they learned about water. He goes on to talk about how the Earth has more water than land. Then he asked me if I knew that there was a water cycle. I told that I had heard something about that before, but to fill me in on this new idea! He continues on to tell me his version of the water cycle, so here it goes:

Tucker: Mama, first you have a puddle of water outside, or a big bowl of water, or even a lake or ocean. The sun heats up the water and it evaporates. Then the water is gassy and floats up to the sky. The clouds collect the gas that was water. The clouds fills up with the water and starts to turn gray. Then the cloud gets full and gets sick to its stomach and throws up rain back to the Earth. Then it starts all over again.

Me: Really, you have learned so much in Kindergarten so far!

When I was teaching I remember making my kids draw the water cycle or use Inspiration software to create the water cycle. As Tucker was talking, I couldn't help but wonder how he would draw his version of the water cycle and giggle a bit at the thought of what I was pictureing in my head. Now, I really don't know exactly how the water cycle was taught to the class, but somehow I really don't think that "throwing up rain" was involve. But, I could be wrong! I am sure his teacher would be so proud of her star student and the knowledge he is gathering.

Simple Saturday and playing with Wordle

It has been a boring weekend at Tucker's house. John cooked blueberry waffles for us for breakfast. I must say that he did not too bad of a job! The rest of the day, we just spend the day cleaning, eating, and watching TV. Tucker's soccer game was cancelled due to Hurricane Ike and the storm we were suppose to have. That was really about it for Saturday.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I took Willy for a walk as soon as I woke up. I had my Ipod ready and had planned on staying gone for a while. My iPod had other plans and quit working after about 45 minutes of walking. To Willy's disappointment, we went on back home. Music just really makes the walk better and I really wanted to get home to see if I could repair my iPod. Somehow, my search for repair ideas led me to the Apple Online Store. HMMMM...I see that Apple is coming out with a 4th generation Nano. The pretty orange one is REALLY nice if anyone was at a loss for what to buy me. :)

We finally put on normal clothes about 11:15 on Sunday to head to Tucker's indoor soccer game. He played well and almost scored 2 goals. He just gets better and better each time he plays.

Finally, I decided to play around with Wordle. This is a great website where you just put in a bunch of words. If you put in the same word multiple times, it gets bigger than the others. Once your list is made, you hit go and it creates a neat word cloud. I made one using words to describe Tucker (above). I can see lots of fun uses for this for home and for the classroom, so I had to share. Go play with wordle...you will love it.

Lunch with Tucker

One of the best things about Tucker being in the same school district as me is that I can eat lunch with him every once in a while. Now that the 1st 2 weeks of school are over, the kindergarten parents are now allowed to eat with their kids. They really didn't want us up there in the way, until a good routine was established in the lunchroom, so I followed directions and stayed away. No need for me to get a blue in conduct, either!
Looking at the lunch menu on Tuesday, we decided that I would bring him lunch. Today was the the day! We had a date and we were both looking forward to me bringing lunch and eating with my little man. Shouldn't be an issue right? Well, I failed to mention to you that we are really talking "brunch". Tucker eats "lunch" from 10:25-10:50ish. This means that if I go pick something up, I am driving through picking up food at 10:15 in the morning. If you want breakfast for lunch, this really isn't a problem. But when you have promised some kind of chicken nugget and french fries, your options are limited, especially when you leave the office at 10:15 and still need to get the lunch. First stop...McDonalds. Well, the one closest to my office stops serving breakfast at 10:30. Never.go.there.again! So next stop A&W/Long John Silver's. Not even open...who wants LJS anyway? Good ole Burger King came to the rescue and I was on my merry way to deliver the goods to Tucker. I was a couple of minutes late, but there were still classmates waiting in the cafeteria line so all was good. Tucker was allowed to choose a friend and we all sat at a "special" table to have our lunch/brunch together. Next time, we will either have breakfast for lunch or I will allow more time to make a Sonic or Burger King run. At least I know now what my choices are.

Quiet game?

After picking up Tucker from after school care, I usually talk to him about what he did in school as we drive home. I ask him what was his favorite thing, what was the most challenging, etc. He loves science and I am gathering that they are talking about the senses. He recited a little poem about the 5 senses. I started joking around with him by saying "So, you taste with your ears, right?" I guess he grow tired of my nonsense because he all of a sudden said, "We need to have quiet time for 30 minutes. So, we are going to play the quiet game." I thought that he was explaining how his teacher reads to the class, but he quickly told me, "no mama, you and I are going to play the quiet game right now. So, please turn up the radio and please quit talking." Usually it is me wanting the quiet time, but this time it came from the little man. I just never thought I would hear those words from him. Wow, they grow up so quickly!

Indoor Soccer Sunday

For the next six weeks we are all about soccer on the weekends! Today was our first indoor soccer game. Yes, we are crazy and have put Tucker on an indoor soccer team and an outdoor soccer team. Tucker was goalie for a lot of this game and I think that he likes being goalie just because there is not as much running involved! He didn't let the other team score on him at all and we did win the game. (Although, we aren't suppose to keep score!) When he played offense, he played better than yesterday, so each time I hope there is improvement. He tends to wait back from the group and want the perfect setup before he kicks the ball. I want him to be more aggressive and just kick the ball. We will work on that! I don't know if soccer will be his 'thing' or not, but it gives him a chance to play with other boys and exercise.

Indoor soccer has changed from when he played over a year and a half ago. Back then, it was more like herd ball, where there was just a big blob of kids following the ball around. This time we actually set up and have a little display of defense and offense. Tucker seems to like playing and enjoys being with a group of boys who can match his energy level. Although, none of the kids are at his school, they are all in kindergarten and they all seem to be a great group of kids and parents. I am looking forward to watching both of his soccer teams play each weekend and watching them get better individually and also grow as a team.

Outdoor Soccer Saturday

We had our first outdoor soccer game bright and early this morning. We had to be at the field by 7:45 AM! Tucker's team has a mixture of veteran soccer players, as well as, newbies like him. He looked so cute in his little soccer uniform. Not exactly the colors I would have chosen for a boys soccer team, but no one asked me! We did have the occasional not-paying-attention moments, but overall he gave a good effort and played well. We didn't win, but we did have our share of points that we scored. Tucker has learned to sort of do a cart-wheel and he looked for every chance that he got to turn a cartwheel. I will have to get video of that next week, because it is something that you really don't want to miss out on! I can't wait to see how he improves throughout the season...cartwheels and soccer playing!

Blue-Green-Blue

I can talk about this now, but I certainly couldn't last Friday...Our first week of kindergarten had some rough patches. Basically we made it through the first day with a green in conduct. I was so excited for my little angel! On Wednesday, it seems that we slipped a little and had some trouble follwing directions and talking. Really? Surely it was another child. Needless to say, we ended up with a yellow day on the 2nd day of school. Thursday was a new and fresh day and somehow we mangaged to stay green like the Incredible Hulk. After school on Friday, I went to pick up Tucker and he was so proud of himself and couldn't wait to show me his red conduct folder. He can't wait to show me and tell me that he had a blue and then the teacher out of the goodness of her heart decided to change him back to green. I guess he didn't figure on me going bonkers on getting the blue, even if the blue went to a green later in the day. Well, my teacher brain just didn't compute the story very well. Since we have about a 20 minute drive to get home, I found this to be a good time to get the story straight. As it turns out, my sweet little angel did receive blue on conduct and it should have stayed blue. My little angel just decided on his own to go ahead and change the blue to a green! Tucker found out quickly that this makes a mama RED! Tucker learned a lot from this experience and I did, too. I was very disappointed in my little boy, and he knew it. He found out that when you lie...you will get caught. While he would have been in trouble for just getting the blue, he now was in even more trouble for getting a blue and then coloring the blue to a green. I hope that he makes better decisions in the future and understands that mistakes are made and you learn from them. I am sure that one day we will remember this incident when he is much older and even find it a bit humorous (right?) Many of you have already heard this story, and even thought he was pretty clever. Thanks to my friends and family for helping me get through this!

Now, another week has passed since this incident. You will also see in the picture above that we have now completed our second week of kindergarten and that we have brought home "greens" in conduct all week long! I think that we may just be getting the hang of this kindergarten thing.