Sunday, April 29, 2012

One More Thought on Sloan

I have to give credit for this thought to my admin at work! She's AWESOME! And when she heard the story of Riley's experience at Sloan, she came in the next day and told me I needed to watch this clip because it summed it up perfectly! And it does! 

One of the "concerns" about Riley from his teacher at Sloan was that he lives in a fantasy world where he thinks he is a Jedi. And my response to that was HE'S THREE! My 38 year old husband thinks he's a Jedi too! I would be MORE concerned if he didn't use his imagination!! So here's a clip to Uncle Buck that sums it all up perfectly!
 

The End of the Sloan Era

I haven't posted about this b/c I'm still too emotional about it, but I figure I should capture it for Riley's sake when he's reading these blogs about his life years from now! Yeah right! :) 

I'm struggling with how much I want to get into it, but for now we'll just say. Sloan quickly changed from the right place for Riley to the completely wrong place for Riley. I think a lot of how you see a school is directly related to the teacher your child has...and let's just say Ms. Ashley (Conley's Nanny) was Riley's teacher last year. This year we weren't so lucky! 

As a parent, I feel HORRIBLE that I left him there as long as I did. His acting out at school started Oct. 4th - 2 days after Conley was born. Then I was so sleep deprived and consumed with adjusting to life with 2 kids that I feel like I failed Riley by leaving him in that school and with this particular teacher for as long as I did. In the end, it went wheels off at record speed. But at least I got to speak my peace to both the husband and wife owners about how I felt about their approach, the teacher and their labeling of children. Ironically, speaking my mind to them doesn't make me feel any better about what Riley went through there though. 

Ms. Ashley of course stepped right up and said he could stay with her for the time being. 6 weeks before the end of the year isn't the best time to be looking for a new school. But I need to get on that soon - I'll have an entire new set of interview questions after our experience with Sloan. Of course, Ms. Ashley is taking Riley on daily adventures and doing all sorts of fun stuff so I better hurry or he may not EVER want to go back to school! :) 

The saddest part for me was him asking every day if he was going to school for a few weeks. I just said "No, you aren't going back there. We're going to find you a new school." To which is his first response was " A Star Wars school Mommy?!". Oh how I wish I could send him to Jedi school...he'd be the star pupil! And he would ask to see his best friend Liam almost every day, and that really tore my heart out! I know he'll make new friends and this will happen many more times, but hopefully under better circumstances in the future. A few weeks after he stopped going to Sloan, he all of the sudden said to me one night when we were lying in his bed after reading books - "I'm not going back to school b/c Ms. Amy & Mr. Darin were mean." We've never discussed this with him, so I feel like he was being honest based on his experience there. Which again - rips your heart out as a parent! But I digress! 

We'll find another school...that will be as good as the promise we thought Sloan had! 

Starting Solids!

Conley started solids in the last week too. He went from always pushing the food out with his tongue to devouring it all! Literally, the first jar of sweet peas he had - he ate the ENTIRE jar! Same for green beans and carrots! So we're just working our way through them all now. He hasn't slowed down on having milk too yet, so we'll see! Otherwise, he may live up to the new nickname Kelly is trying to give him 'Ton'. Mommy's not onboard! He's too sweet to be called 'Ton'! Chunky Monkey though...Riley and I are ALL over that!

We have all 4 front teeth!

Wow! Conley literally popped all 4 front teeth in almost 4 sequential days! Friday the 13th, bottom right, Saturday the 14th top left, then by Tues he had the other 2! I haven't successfully gotten a picture of any of them yet though...stay tuned for that!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Let the Battles Begin!

The first of many light saber battles I'm sure. Riley was calling Conley Baby Darth Sidious! Nice!

Conley's 6 Month Well Visit Stats

Length: 28 1/4 - 90-97%
Weight: 21lbs 10.5oz - 97% (I was sure he'd be 110%!)
Head Size: 17 3/4 - 75-90%

For some reason I didn't post Riley's 6 month stats, so I'll have to find them and post them for comparison. I think Riley may have been taller with a bigger head, but Conley weighs more. 

Just brothers!

Hanging on the sofa.....so sweet! 




Little Brother looking up to Big Brother! So sweet!

Star Wars Bunk Beds!

Riley randomly did this yesterday while he was playing. It's Star Wars bunk beds! LOL! 



He's lying down too...since they are in their "bunk beds".

Fake sleeping...I'm buying it!

That lasted about as long as I expected!

Here's the video interview - it wasn't as good the 2nd time around when I had the camera. His explanation and descriptions the first time around were awesome!

Conley's First Tooth!

I can't get a picture of it, but Conley cut his first tooth on Friday the 13th! Eww! In April at 6.5 months old! It's the bottom right one. Let the drooling stage begin! His tongue is constantly sticking out right now b/c he's rubbing it back and forth over where his 1 bottom tooth is! Gotta get the bibs ready! 


Those CHEEKS! :)

Actually...it would probably be ok if you pushed away from the table for a meal or two! :)

That TONGUE!
Nonstop!

Finally got a pic without it!

Easter Fun!

So this Easter marks the 1 year mark that the Easter Bunny brought Riley light sabers...oh little did we know where that small act would lead us! This year the Easter Bunny brought more Star Wars goodies!

First we did an egg hunt at Nancy's with Ethan & Emily! 




See the Darth Vader egg on the gate?!


 The following 3 pics prove how it's impossible to get 3 kids to look at the camera and say cheese at the same time! ha!



Opening all the eggs for goodies inside! Conley watching too!

Chunkalicious Himself!!


Easter Bunny brought lots of Star Wars stuff for Riley! :)

And some goodies for Conley too!

Kelly took some pics of Conley while I was getting ready Easter morning.

That's his teething necklace! It works!

Watching the FLASH that is Big Brother!
Let the hunting begin!

There's one!

Got it!




Conley & GiGi watching the action!


 At this point, Riley had filled his basket full and was ready to quit. When I urged him to continue, he shrugged his shoulders and said I have PLENTY already Mommy! Kelly laughed how he doesn't take after him b/c Kelly would have been racing to get them all!
 
 The only way we convinced Riley to hunt for more was to get them for PawPaw!

The basket is full, so we're on to filling the bag up!



All done! Too sunny over cheese!



Pooped out at Aunt Char's!

Pooped out within 5 minutes of leaving Aunt Char's. 


Notice he's still holding his Star Wars figures....

FINALLY! Asleep when we were 11 minutes from home!
I joke they are like a wrestling tag team. One goes to sleep, then tags the other one in! This ride home was just one example of that! ha!