Brody at Wells Fargo

We opened a savings account for Corey at "Grandpa's bank" today, and Brody was quite entertaining between playing peek-a-boo, making horse/pig noises (because of Wells Fargo and piggy banks) and singing Twinkle Twinkle! I think the tellers and customers were pretty amused!

Family Fun

The dog sitting is going well here in the Sinclair household. I'm a little bitter that Addy is better dressed than me (she has a hot-pink leather leash), but she's cute enough I've overcome it, slightly.

Her favorite camping ground when Rob's in the office is right at his feet under the desk, which is a rather odd location with a hard floor, but whatever makes her happy. Other than that, she follows us each from room to room and sits on laps when possible. She has had a daily walk since moving in with us, so we're spoiling her.

I'm sure we were quite a sight on our walk tonight, since Brody was giving each of us kisses, or piggybacking on Daddy (which sounds an awful lot like Addy since he doesn't get that D in....) or holding Corey's hand. I'm sure Addy misses her own parents!

Corey still thinks he really wants a dog (but a small one, he clarifies) even though Addy scared him half to death this morning. He was creeping toward our room at 6 a.m. and she barked at him (either she was "protecting" us or was scared of him herself, but her tail seemed to be wagging in excitement... hard to tell!)

Corey's done better at school this week - all greens and one yellow (for talking, what else?) There was a little incident today with the student he's supposed to stay away from but apparently it didn't impact his color rating. He's doing great at school - we can see his grades online!

Sunday Night Movie Night

Aww ... aren't they cute?

Brody loved to say it: MOVIE NIGHT! However, neither boy was thrilled with Mom & Dad's pick of Beauty and the Beast. What can we say? We have seen "Toy movie," "Car movie, "Monster movie," and "Bear movie" WAY too much. It was time for a change.

Speaking of changes... no big announcements like my sister (congratulations, Julie) - to read more, click the Urban Kansas link - but big changes in the kids' rooms. We FINALLY sold the crib and dresser today, to what looks like a good family-to-be. And so Brody's room now only has the dresser from Corey's room, his train bed and his rocking chair. (We couldn't bear to sell it since he loves it so much.) Corey's bed got moved against the wall, freeing up some space for playtime, and he "donated" his dresser to Brody. We have another one in the garage, plus TONS of closet space in both rooms, so I anticipate a major reorganization.

And while Brody ushered in a new age with the removal of his crib, he has discovered an absolute fascination with the potty, unlike his brother ever did! We broke out the kiddie potty, and Brody probably comes up to one of us about ten times a day with a need to "pooh pooh." So far, there has been no such result, but he has used the potty about three times successfully! And his favorite time to go is when Corey is also going, of course.

Brody's other favorite activity is singing. We'll have to get the ABC song recorded because it's adorable, but he also does Elmo's Song and Twinkle, Twinkle.

Then, we finished what we started, or well, what I started, a few weeks ago. We painted the master bath cabinets dark brown as we had done with the guest bath cabinets. It really does make the saltillo bearable!

Saturday night I went out for bunko, and the boys came here to hang out with Rob and kids. Rob looked exhausted when I got home (that was two men and five boys, so no surprises there.)

Wednesday night was Curriculum Night at Finley Farms. I was disappointed in the turn-out at Corey's class - about only a third of the kids were represented! Totally different than kindergarten. But I learned a lot, and as usual, and had some questions answered. Like why Corey told us he can't change his lunch anymore now that he's a first grader (apparently they only cook so many meals, so older kids don't get their requests if first graders change their mind). And why they share pencils (because some kids spend the entire day at the pencil sharpener, so she prevents that by making them trade broken pencils in for already sharpened ones.) And why Corey said he took a test that wasn't a reading test or a spelling test, but he had to read words that weren't words. Apparently it's a test they do to make sure kids can really sound out the letters (versus reading by sight.)

Corey did finally eek out a green day on Friday, and his Thursday yellow was attributed to talking (and apparently wandering around the classroom to talk!) so we are at least making some progress in that he's staying away from one boy in particular who has been troublesome. We are hoping for a very good week this week!

Bobo's Many Faces

Brody and I are taking a break from cleaning (Carrie and Corey are stuffing envelopes for her newsletter), so I figured I'd share some of Bobo's latest looks. (Yes, that is peanut butter in his mouth ... and on his face ... and in his hair!)

P.S. Corey isn't going to have much fun this weekend; he's being punished for two "Yellow" days at school and a "RED" day on Friday. He did seem to think he got all of the words right on his spelling test, so that's good!

Thursday Night Football

We went to the Cardinals game Thursday night with the Honeywell tickets. It was a long evening (6 hours from the time I left the house, picked up Brody, picked up Corey, picked up Carrie, drove to Glendale, watched the game and returned home ... in the RAIN), but we had fun. They were great seats. Of course, it was a preseason game (and the Cardinals at that), so we didn't stay for the whole thing. Here's a view from our seats and Brody playing with my hat. Enjoy!

First Day of First Grade -- UPDATED!

Carrie just took the boys to school (I think she's more excited about the first day of school than anyone) so here are some pictures from this morning. I'm also including one of Corey from last year's first day of school so you can see how much he's changed ... wow!



We went over to the school on Monday and got to meet Corey's teacher (Mrs. Jauregui -- still working on the pronunciation) and see his class. He knows some of the girls from his kindergarten class, plus there's a few kids from his T-ball team.

Actually, we don't have much more to report. Corey said "first grade is way better than kindergarten." It sounds like his day went very smoothly. They only had one snack (in the morning), but still had two recesses ... AND today was a P.E. day! Corey already has a "first-grade best friend" but he still saw all his old friends from kindergarten on the playground. Today the kids all brought in a bag with five things about them (Corey brought a picture of him and Brody, a hockey puck, a Coyotes program, a Sponge Bob Squarepants book and a Fruit-by-the-Foot wrapper).

Addition from Carrie: Corey recapped his day and it basically sounded like a tour of the school, recess, snack, lunch, recess, PE and home. Upon further digging, we discovered that he did indeed do some "work" - he wrote the letter T. When asked if he also did some math, he looked at us as if we were crazy and said, "You don't do reading and math in the same DAY!" Later, when we read books, I discovered that his teacher read a Clifford sledding book to the class today as well. (It didn't seem likely the teacher would read a sledding book in August, but Corey was convinced.) Corey said she had trouble reading Emily Elizabeth's name, or kept forgetting her full name or something.

Also, Corey must have opened his backpack to reveal his bag with five items in it. However, he came home with a backpack full of school supplies (that we had sent with him that morning.) I said I couldn't believe he didn't give the teacher any of his school supplies (he had complained about the weight this morning) and he said he DID give her all but one eraser, which he kept for himself. Further, he came home stamped because he didn't have lunch money. He, of course, DID have lunch money but it was also in the backpack that he clearly abandoned after getting the bag of five and his one eraser!

We also continued the tradition of going to Dairy Queen after school! As we were walking back to the car, Corey asked if he could have a pretzel, so I'm guessing the ice cream wasn't "enough" (but he didn't get the pretzel.)

P.S. As you can see, Brody discovered the joys of GOGURT this morning! :-)