Three more days till School

We've got a few more days to prepare, the first day of Kindergarten is this Friday, September 3rd. The Kiddo is impatient, every day he asks "is this the day I go to school?" And every day I tell him "no, it's on Friday, today is NOT Friday." I even turned the calander early so he could SEE what day today is and how many more days. I think he just likes to annoy me by asking.

At any rate his teacher sent us home with a project for him to finish prior to the first day of school. She had a person cut out of white posterboard, he was supposed to decorate it to look like him. We did it yesterday.
He asked to use buttons for the eyes and picked HUGE brown buttons, then he used string for the glasses, and little thin fabric pieces for the hair. He drew on the nose and mouth. He picked the shirt fabric and after I drew a shirt outline on it he cut it out. He asked if we could use his old jeans for pants (I said yes obviously) and then he cut some shoes. Finally he said the shirt HAD to have buttons (because the shirt he was wearing as he made it has buttons) so we use buttons and a piece of fabric to make it look like it was a button shirt. He is very proud of the finished product and I'd say he did most of it all by himself, I mostly helped with gluing (if he wasn't fast enough and the glue dried before he got the piece down) and with cutting the jeans.
During this project we learned that he's GREAT at cutting, and a little messy with a glue stick. I do sort of wish he'd picked smaller buttons for the eyes, those huge ones are a tad creepy... other then that, he did a great job making a super cute mini Kiddo.

$13 = (take one)

A few days ago I mentioned in one of my posts that my MIL took us shopping last Tuesday for some school clothing for the kiddo, he ended up with new shoes and five shirts. That was really great of her to do and gave us a good start on his wardrobe. Still, all his "old" shirts are a bit too small and we knew we'd need more.

I found a box listed on ThredUp that had 4 short sleeve shirts, 4 long sleeve shirts, and one pair of black cord pants. I went ahead and paid the 13 bucks shipping and crossed my fingers.
Well we got the box on Saturday and it was perfect!! The pants are adjustable waist (the only kind that will fit him) and the shirts are all in like new condition.

Now we have 9 short sleeve shirts (in all honesty he could probably use a couple more 4T short sleeve tshirts but my school shopping budget it completely tapped out at this point so we'll make due with what we've got). He's got 4 long sleeve shirts. He has a (new) pair of 4T pants, and his old pair of 3T jeans. So really the only thing left to buy at that point was another pair of jeans (in 4T).

I priced them and the cheapest I could find were $9.99!! Of course my first thought was "well shoot for that price I might as well browse ThredUp and see what I can find with pants". Wouldn't you know there was a box listed with five pairs of 4T adjustable waist pants (jeans and cords and khaki) and two shirts. I admit it, I spent another 13 bucks and ordered that too. How could I spend almost that much on ONE new pair of pants when I could get five for the same price? Besides even with his the growing he's doing the pants will most likely fit him until next summer (4T's are several inches to long on him) so it's a great investment for the entire school year.

As soon as that box gets here I'll take a picture and let you all know if it was worth the price.

Assessment...

The first day of school for the Kiddo is fast approaching, it will be Sept 3rd. He is VERY excited. A few days ago the Mans mom came and took the Kiddo and myself to the store to buy him a few new outfits so he'd have something to wear. Five new shirts and two new pairs of shoes later I think we've got a good start! I also "bought" a box full of 4T cloths off of thred up, it has 8 shirts and one pair of pants in it so at 13 bucks I spent about 1.50 on each item of cloths, that's a great deal so I'm excited. I should get the box sometime early next week and I will post about it as soon as I do. Between the two he's got enough shirts to last him almost two weeks. New socks (we bought yesterday) and maybe a couple more shirts (eventually if I ever get any more extra cash) and he's pretty much set till winter.
At 1pm today is when we take the Kiddo in to meet his teacher. He'll have his assessment done and we'll finally set up his medical emergency plan. I admit to worrying a bit about what this assessment includes, which is dumb because he really is super smart.

I did a google search to ease my mind...
Can name primary/secondary clrs - check (confuses orange and pink though)
Can name the shapes - check (at least the simple ones anyway)
Recognizes all his upper case letters - check
Recognizes all his lower case letters - check
Recognizes his numbers - ummmm check
Can WRITE his upper case letters - check
Can write his name - check
Can write his lower case letters - no; not from memory
Can write his numbers - no; not from memory
Cut with scissors - nope, don't have any never had him try
Knows his address and b-day - check (most of the time anyway)
Knows his phone number - no, I'm lazy, I told him to tell folks it's on his medical id tag
Knows letters sounds - check

I think that's it. Anyway he's a little shaky in some areas but shoot that's what kindergarten is FOR, to teach him this stuff. Sometimes I think I could have kept him home and done homeschooling through this year. But I know sending him to school is the best option, because while I CAN teach him what he needs to know (obviously, I mean look at the check list) I CAN'T give him the social skills he needs, and that's what school will do. I'm terrified of it, the lack of control by having him away from me... even though the odds are 99.9/1 against something happening I still have the gut glench whenever I think about it. Will the Teacher watch him close enough? Will she CARE that he can't see out of that left eye when she's trying to teach him. Will she make sure he's included and continues to feel as normal as he feels now? He's such a good kid, I'm sure it'll all be fine *deep breath*

Oh and by the way have I mentioned he Can READ - check (proud grin going on here)
I'll try to post how the assessment/meeting went later this evening. Stay tuned!

Are you my mother?

The Kiddo is doing very well lately with his reading. I took another video so you can see, unfortunately I took during the last five minutes of a 25 minute long book... needless to say he was a little brain tired. I should mention that we have NOT read this particular book together at all in the past month or two so he isn't reading from memory, he's actually reading the words. I'm really proud of how well he's doing.

Summer Baking

Lately I've been on a baking kick. It's the Man's fault, or more correctly speaking it's his coworker's fault. Several weeks ago he sent the Man home with a giant zucchini. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out what to do with the thing and finally ended up grating it into four 3c containers for bread. I froze three of them, and used the last to bake a couple loaves of honey sweetened, 60% coco chocolate chip, bread.
The good news is that it was really good, and I still have half a loaf left! The bad news is that it started me on a baking kick.

I've had a jar of Almond Butter sitting around that I'd purchased a few months ago on a "health" whim (see almonds are "good nuts" and the fats in them actually tell your body to burn fat, but peanuts aren't so almond butter is healthier for you). Anyway I've had a jar sitting around, it's just not as good as peanut butter on a sandwich, it's great on apples but I don't eat apples all that often so it's just been sitting there not being used. And I thought, as I debated what to bake next, that I really would love some sort of peanut butter brownie...
So I pulled out the brownie pan and made some perfectly amazing brownies, made with Almond butter, whole wheat flour, and coconut.

Then this week I decided that I wanted to use up the last bit of the almond butter. What to do, what to do...
How about some almond butter cookies with a coco chip set into them. The Kiddo helped me with the chips part, and these cookies are SO good. I really hope the Man takes a bunch to work tomorrow or I'm going to end up eating them all!

Breakfast oats

I know that there are a few of you out there that eat oatmeal every now and then (I think my mom does at least once a week if not more often). I've been eating it quite a bit because it's so cheap and easy, and keeps me full till lunch. I eat regular Quaker oats, the non packet kind, because who needs the extra sodium and sugar those little handy packets carry.

Anyway lately I've been reading quite a bit about how steel cut oats are so much better then rolled. I finally went and bought some (because, hey, they are about the same price so why not give them a try). I read the boxes nutrition label and found they are almost identical in nutrient value etc... so why then are they better?











Pretty obviously the picture on the right side is rolled oats. The picture on the left is steel cut.

Old Fashioned Rolled Oats - These are made by steaming the groats and flattening them with a roller. The Quaker Old Fashioned Rolled Oats are very thinly rolled, as are the store varieties by the same title. If you look hard, however, you can often find rolled oats that are twice as thick as the Quaker variety, and these make a lovely, less creamy version of oatmeal than the Quaker ones do. Quaker sets the industry standard, so theirs is considered REGULAR Old Fashioned Rolled Oats. If they are thicker, they are called THICK Old Fashioned Rolled Oats.

Quick-cooking rolled oats -- These are made by flattening pre-cut groats. They cook in about 5 minutes.

Steel Cut Oats or Scottish Oats or Irish Oats- These are groats which have been cut into two or three pieces. Cooking time is considerably longer than for rolled oats.

So here's basically what I figured out. The actual nutrition value of each type of oat is pretty much the same but it's the glycemic index of the oats that's the important part and what makes the steel cut oats the better choice for breakfast.

See here's the thing... the important part with food is how much is done to it to break down the cell structure before you get it and eat it. One way this can be done is by cooking the food item. The longer the cooking time, the greater the breakdown of the cell walls, and the faster that food can enter your blood stream and the faster your body will react to it by producing insulin to break down the carbohydrates (sugars) into simple, readily usable forms.

We want the happy medium, ... breaking down the starches just enough to make them tasty and easy to digest, but not so long that they become unfavorable, i.e. high on the glycemic index. The less you break down your foods, the less the glycemic reaction will be, the more stable your blood sugar will remain, the longer you'll stay "full" and the fewer cravings you will have.

So, when they steam and toast rolled oats they are actually raising the glycemic index and so that type of oat raises your blood sugar faster then steel cut.

And there you go, the long story of why I am going to eat steel cut for a few weeks. It's my own personal experiment on breakfast food. I mixed in a handful of raisins, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. It was the yummiest thing I've had for breakfast in awhile and here it is several hours later and I'm still comfortably full. Things are looking good :)


*They take forever to cook BUT if you soak them overnight they cook as quickly as rolled oats do:

Soak 1/2 cup oats and 2 cups milk (or water) overnight, covered, in med-sized bowl. Transfer to medium saucepan, add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and cook on stovetop over med-high heat to bring to a boil. Lower heat and maintain a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, stirring frequently until oats are softened and most of liquid is absorbed and becomes thick, about 10 minutes. Either serve right away or...the leftovers can be transferred to a resealable container, cooled and covered and stored in the fridge for up to a week reheated as needed. Superduper yummy!!

My, look how he's grown

Last Monday (the 16th) was the one year mark since we started giving the Kiddo his Hypothyroid medication. Next Tuesday (the 25th) will be the one year mark for the Adrenal Insufficiency meds... ... ...

And yesterday was the four month mark from the start of his growth hormone shots. If you remember my posting one month after he started taking them, he had grown 1 1/4 inches in those four weeks. Over the next couple months (until his doc appointment in mid July) he only added about half an inch of growth to that.

Well it's been five weeks since that doc appointment, and today we measured again. He has grown 1 1/4 inches*!! His smile says it all... he may still be a shorty, but he's catching up quick!!

*I rounded down 1/4 inch (because we found that my "at home" measurements tend to be about that much over what the doc measures).

August Weekend Fun

This weekend has been a full one.

First I have to admit it, I'm not a big fan of swimming in our apartments pool. Something about a zillion crazy screaming kids gives me a headache.. because of that I haven't taken the Kiddo out there at all this summer and I've been feeling very guilty about that. But this Friday the Man (bless him) agreed to go out with us and so we all trucked down to swim.










The Kiddo still hates to get his head wet, but I by playing follow the leader I convinced him a few times to jump off the side into the water. I think I need to teach him to plug his nose and he'll argue with me less about it. All in all we had a pretty great time, and only the Man and I got toasted.

Saturday was even better, my father in law invited us to go to another car show with him. I know I've said it before but I'm going to say it again, I really really love going to classic car shows. We met at my FIL's house in the morning and he drove us all down in his 55. These two were my favorites, I like the airbrushing on the one, and the other is just so fun with the multiple color paint.










There was tons of free food (the Kiddo had his first ever cotton candy!!) and over 150 cars to look at. We even had a nice place in the shade to sit.













And lets not forget the face painting, I'm pretty sure this is the first time the Kiddo has had his face painted. He asked her to do BumbleBee the transformer... she had no idea what to do so winged it.










And last but not least a picture of the Kiddo next to his favorite car (after grandpas car of course)... a Hudson Hornet painted up just like Doc from the Lightning McQueen movie... Love the window shades, I wonder where they got them.

Barefoot running

My younger brother has thing thing about weird attire. The last time I was home we had a really long talk about barefoot running, and these running sandles he'd just purchased that were made out of tires with leather straps to hold them on. Now I'm all for minamilistic shoes and thought they looked rather neat, but I couldn't imagine how they would stay on your feet well enough to actually RUN in them (not to mention they had absolutely no stub your toe protection)

Anyway today I was taking a break and found an article discussing barefoot running and these trendy, almost not there, running shoes called Vibrams. I'm thinking they look funky enough he'd like them, and I always did have a thing for muppet socks... they even come in pink!! If they didn't cost 80 bucks I'd even buy myself a pair.

hotdog smiles

Once upon a time there was a lonely deserted hotdog. The lonely deserted hotdog tried to catch up to his friends, but he only fell on the floor. Then something fortunate happened.

Martha (who is a dog on a PBS tv show): I just adore hotdogs.

Hotdog: she thinks, *gasp*, she thinks I'm a door!!??

Martha: No adore means I like them a lot.

And she ate the hotdog, and it went down to her throat and into her stomach, and joined all the other hotdogs.

The end.

The moral of the story (mumbled)... if you're a lonely deserted hotdog come see martha...

shirts and shoes

My little sister (bless her) recently sent me the link to a kids cloth's sharing website. Basically I can buy a box of kid sized clothing, unseen, for just the cost of shipping (13 bucks) and all I have to do is fill my own box of clothing for somebody else to buy.

I'm on the fence. On the one hand, buying clothing I can't SEE first makes me twitch. The Kiddo is five AND he's his fathers son, he doesn't give a rats behind what he puts on his body... in fact if I didn't make him get dressed he'd just spend the day in his underwear. But I know what he likes anyway, and it's NOT preppy or cartoon type cloths. He likes what the Man likes, simple stuff with dark colors and rough and outdoorsy feel to them. If it's cartoons he wants starwars or iron man (not cars or whinny the poo).

Still, what are the odds I'd get a whole box of mickey mouse shirts? And 13 bucks for 7+ pieces of clothing is a steal, on my budget it's a bargain that might just be worth tossing the dice on. If I can shake lose enough to buy him say two shirts from the store, and maybe one pair of jeans, and pay shipping for just one box... well shoot I think that would be plenty to get him all the way to winter, if not through till spring.

(window shopping at Target he found a jacket he loves, now to save up 14 bucks so I can buy it)

Anyway I think I'll be trying it out. If the first box is good, I may end up buying a second. After all I know for sure I can fill at least two boxes with the Kiddo's "to small" cloths (I've got a ton of 2T stuff laying around, and he's just now outgrowing his 3T's).

I'm also gritting my teeth and listing his skechers hot-lights police car shoes on Ebay, part of me really wants to keep them but they don't fit him anymore so there really is no point. The sad news with that is that I cannot find another pair in his current size (he'd need a sz 10). That means new non flashy shoes, and I know I wont be the only one who misses them...

Kindergarten prep

The Man has drill this weekend, and he always goes to get his haircut a few days before. This time, because the Kiddo starts school in three weeks, we made an effort to make sure the Kiddo got to go with him and get his haircut too. He loves when he gets to go with his dad, and he really likes getting to have the same haircut as him too. In the waiting room he read me Hop on Pop, I am seriously loving Dr Suiss books right now, they are fairly easy for him to read and he gets a real sense of pride in being able to do it.

When we got home I found, in the mail, a couple letters from his elementary school. The first told us what teacher he is going to have and that he's got the afternoon schedule. Which is great, except that their "new" afternoon times are an hour earlier then the ones they had written down when I chose them. The change will make Friday's medication schedule a little hinky.... but doable still I guess, if I give him his pill 45 minutes early.

I will be setting up his assessment testing appointment tomorrow, hopefully I can get it set for the 27th because then the Man can come with us.

We also found out that they switched to a traditional school year. THAT I'm a LOT ticked about, I was really excited that the Kiddo would be on year round school. There are so many positives to it, and I really think that he would have learned best that way.

I suppose on the bright side, now I wont feel so bad if we move out of this district. Before I would have felt bad about leaving such a good school situation, now it wouldn't matter. How is that for a positive attitude? :)

Core ... Balance ... working out

I ended up very bored with the wall exercises that I posted awhile back. They didn't "feel" like they were doing much, and as much fun as it was to watch the Kiddo try to do them with me, our apartment really isn't set up with much open wall space.

That being said I am going to ditch them and try a few new moves. These ones really work your core, which is what you want if your goal is a flatter mid section. I added them to the end of my 5 minutes ab routine and I can really feel them working so I think they'll be great. If you don't already have an ab routine going then there's a really great set of moves to try down at the bottom of the yoga article, 12 moves to target abs.

Fish and things

This past weekend we spent with my friend out in eastern Utah again. There are times when I wonder how she handles living out in the boonies like she does, and then I visit and I remember that the drive once every week (or two) to pick up groceries, really wouldn't be bad compared to getting to live where she does. Her house overlooks the lake, and has the small town night sky (vs the city "what stars" view). As always we had a very relaxing time with her family, and the Kiddo wishes we could visit every week.

His special treat this visit was getting to go out on the lake where my friends hubby let the Kiddo steer the boat!
And they fished. I think they said that he needed help reeling it in. We have video of him driving the boat, and a short one of him with the fish.

About an hour before it was time to head home we sent the kids outside to play. They clambered up on the trampoline. The Kiddo did very well with it, considering it was probably the second time in his life that he'd been up on one. He skip jumps, but hey it's still two feet in the air.

We also, of course, played with all the animals. He fed the bunnies with the other kids. I'm sure he played with the goats while he was at it. And we cuddled the puppies.

hair today...

A couple years ago I got a haircut that was super short, a pixie cut. Almost everybody really liked it. But I wasn't so sure, granted I loved it when it was wet, but I was never sure about it it when it dried because it always went a little poofy. There's nothing worse then poofy on top hair if you've got an long oval face shape, it just makes your face look longer. Every time I looked in the mirror I wouldn't see me, and that bothered me.

Anyway it's been a few years since that experiment. My hair was finally long enough to pull back into an easy pony tail. Which means it was time for a new haircut.

The last time I saw my little sister she had a jaw length style, and I really loved it. The way she styled it really showed off her face shape well, and accentuated her jaw line. I thought I would go with something that would (hopefully) do the same for me. Plus I like short, it's easier to care for. So I went with an a-line cut, shorter in the back, but chin length in the front. Wash, scrunch and wear... quick and easy. I can still pull the sides back and clip them out of my face and if I have the time (or inclination) I can use a strait iron to flatten and curl it in to maximize the effect. I think I like it. Of course it's only day three, so I'm not quite used to it yet. What do you think? (and can I just say the angle on the front picture makes my nose look HUGE, *grumble*)

Better than the Sand Castle: Beach Art Gallery

Better than the Sand Castle: Beach Art Gallery

Shoes and Cars

Saturday morning, as we got dressed for the day, I decided that instead of his usual crocs I would put the Kiddo's police car shoes on him. We upgraded him to size 9's about three months ago and I was a little shocked to find that they now fit snugly, in fact he complained that they were to small!! I think he has a little room left in them, but we will be buying him new shoes a lot sooner then I thought we would. I suppose I've been very spoiled by only having to buy new shoes once a year, after all he was in the 8.5 size for at least a year and a half.
We were putting shoes on so we could go out for the afternoon. My inlaws had invited us to go to a classic car show with them. It's been awhile since we've been able to go with them to one and I've really missed it. I love seeing all the cars and hanging out outdoors just relaxing. It's a great activity to do with family, and we're really lucky when we can go. The Kiddo loves it, he loves classic cars.

We had a good time. The Kiddo's two favorite cars?... well Grandpa's of course.
and then the orange "monster truck" (yes I know, it's not a truck, but the Kiddo figures if it has big tires then that must be what it's called regardless of what it actually is).
He also got a pretty big kick out of this guy... the head spins around when you pass a motion sensor in it's chest. I'll admit it it freaked me out a little.