One by One

I’m sure you are all familiar with the morning and evening battle called brushing my teeth. It’s not that I don’t like to brush my teeth; it’s the good fight of preventing any type of cleaning to occur that I love! One night after eating a chocolate chip cookie, my mother insisted that I open my mouth so that she could get the chocolate out. I decided that I wanted to see the chocolate. Opening wide, I allowed my mother to scrub every white space in my mouth and then showed me the chocolate. Ever since then, this tactic has worked wonders as I love to see what my tooth brush looks like after a good scrubbing.

Hit the Road Jack

It's moving up time again at Goddard. I'm am moving up to the Seals because I am ready to take the next step, as is Emily. Physically I am big enough to be with the big kids and intellectually I am thriving. On the intellectual note, I can say my abc's, count to 13, dominant the color and shape chart, know all my animal sounds, and having started to add. For instance, when asked how many there are of something, I will respond with the correct number (usually) rather than counting the objects out loud. What's exciting about the move is I'm back in the gang with Ryan and Steven, for a short period of time anyway. They will be moving on most likely in January which is sad, but as we all know one must leave to progress. Being that my new class does not "open" until 8:30 and closes at 5:00, I start my day in Bears with breakfast and Ms. Sassy and end my day there with Ms. Amanda. It's nice as I can continue to play with my buddies from the Bears class (see below).


In my new class, the Silly Seals, we start every morning with circle time which includes learning the days of the week, placing the correct date on the calendar, discussing the weather outside, and much more. The day continues with art, reading and life skills. About those life skills, it includes potty training, the one life skill I have decided that isn't so necessary, but I suppose I'll keep trying.

The Boys are Back in Town

Welcome back Fall! With Fall in full swing, so begins the activities, including swimming lessons. After taking the summer off and spending some weekends at the beach, I have missed the water. Of course I still won’t jump off the edge of the pool without hand assistance, but maybe that will change over the course of this session. Additionally, the good teacher is back, Ms. Sue. She can carry a tune and is so much better than the others. My paddling skills are improving as is my kicking and splashing. But I’m not quite to the point where I can begin to swim on my own, even with a bubble. So there are a few things I’m working on but I’ll get there.

20 Little White Things

Well holy moly miracles do happen. I finally have all my teeth! This means one thing, I can eat anything I want, or at least this what I think; my mother thinks otherwise. She still won’t let me have anything really chewy or extremely hard, essentially candy. I think she’s using the whole choking bit as an excuse, but she’s the Boss! The other thing that works against me is I have nothing to blame my crankiness on now. Before, I could always just point to my mouth and say “mouth hurts” but now I have nothing to fall back on for being a bit testy. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll think of something to fill the void.

The End

Today it was discovered that I only have one more baby tooth to come in. I just got my left canine tooth and my lower left molar. Unlike my upper molars that caused much pain and angst, these two teeth weren’t much to cry over. But the best part is that after my last molar there is sure to be no more pain; until my wisdom teeth that is! The other thing that has become noticeable is how straight my teeth are. My parents are really hoping that I inherited the Kappenman teeth as they are known to be straight with no need for braces. I haven’t visited the dentist yet which according to my mom is coming any day, especially if I don’t start cooperating during teeth brushing sessions.

As suggested above, I am not a fan of brushing my teeth. I often put up quite a good fight which includes pulling the tooth brush out of my mouth, pulling my mommy’s hands away, and turning my head in any fashion to prevent a good oral cleaning. My mommy has tried everything from fancy toothbrushes to letting me do it myself and then showing me the right way, but nothing beats watching her scramble to get a toothbrush in my mouth. To say the least, these fights usually end in a headlock of sorts with me bent over her knee backward and my hands being strapped to my chest with her free hand all the while my jaw is clenched shut until I start crying. At that point it allows her to scrub away. The finale being me scowling at her with big puppy dog eyes and an expression of “how dare you!” Needless to say, for the both of us it is the least favorite part of our days. To bad brushing my teeth won’t come to an end too when my last tooth comes in!

Heaven

Nine years ago today our country was forever changed. Of course I wasn’t born yet but to honor those that passed on in such a horrible event as I live so close to Ground Zero. Every year, New York City shines two beams into the sky to symbolize the Twin Towers. Neither my parents nor I have ever seen the beams of light. So we made it a point this year to see them. To do so, we traveled to Hoboken and visited my buddy Tal and his parents. Together, at sunset we ventured out to the deck on the river and watched the sky become illuminated with light. At first it was hard to see, but as the sky grew darker the lights grew stronger. On the way home, I fell asleep but my parents stopped over at Liberty State Park where a large gathering had come to take pictures of the beams. It is true that those lights shine all the way to heaven to give those families that lost so much a glimpse of their loved ones in heaven.

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

Something new that I recently learned would be jumping on the couch and beds. I love to do seat drops, something I learned at Middlesex County Gymnastics Academy. These are performed by jumping up and pulling your legs out from underneath you and landing on your bottom. Instead of doing these on a trampoline, which is where they are supposed be done, I like to do them on the couch and even better yet when someone is sitting on the couch. This weekend when Grandma and Grandpa B were visiting, I loved to climb up on the couch with Papa and do just this to him. He didn’t find it so amusing but I sure did love it; that is until I earned myself a timeout.

The other thing that I recently learned is that my mattress has springs, and good ones that provide me the ability to jump up and down. But flashback for a moment…the first night back in my own bed after getting home from the Outer Banks, I fell out of my bed. This led to a trip to Toys R’ Us for a bed rail so that I wouldn’t fall out again. Well this handy gadget has provided me the ability to hold and treat my bed like a trampoline. After I was caught red handed jumping on the bed, my parents told me no and asked if I had ever heard the story about the monkeys jumping on the bed. My mother than proceeded to inform me of the story: 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed and how one fell off and bonked his head. What so great about this story is that I now jump on my bed all the while saying “no more monkeys jumping on the bed!”