Conferences

Gabe's parent teacher conference was on Wed. and his teacher said that he is doing really well. She thinks that he will be ready for kindergarten in August although there he does still have some problems with his behavior/socially. But, most of the time he is doing well. His teacher loves Gabe's ability to sit down and make anything out of anything. She said that he is the only one in her class like that. She also said that Gabe catches on to concepts very fast, and that he catches on to concepts that she doesn't expect any of her class to get yet. She also said that it seems that Gabe takes changes really hard. The few times that he has had a rough time at school it has corresponded with other changes in his life. So, having a brand new brother or sister a few weeks before he starts kindergarten might be a little rough, but a hopefully few weeks should be enough time to adjust.

Carissa's parent teacher conference was this morning, and her teacher again said that Carissa is doing wonderfully and that she is a joy to teach. Carissa got the highest scores/grades in everything on her report card again. She has been on reading level C for a little while now, which the goal for kindergarten is for them to be on C by the end of the school year. Her teacher expects Carissa to be on level D by the end of the school year. Carissa passed reading all of her numbers through 20, and most of her class missed a couple of the teen numbers. Her handwriting and math are also very good. Her teacher has no concerns, and I don't have any either. We have a few lists of words for Carissa to practice, and her teacher said if Carissa knows all of those words when she starts 1st grade that her 1st grade teacher will be very happy. We will probably work on those over the summer.

Conversations

The other day Gabe had a great idea or at least he thought so. He told me that if I didn't want to buy clothes for the baby that I should just put his and Carissa's clothes in the dryer and leave them. Then they would be small enough for the baby to wear. This was shortly after he saw a cartoon that showed someone's clothes being shrunk by the dryer.

Then today Carissa was talking to me in the car and told me that soon I would have 3 kids to take care of and that it will be more work for me. (She has told me that a few times, and it sounds like she is teasing me.) Both Carissa and Gabe have been asking for a little brother and little sister for a couple of years now. So, after she said that to me today, I told her that if they get what they want I will have to end up with 4 kids to take care of. (I was curious what she would say to that.) Her response, "Well, you love daddy, right?" I said, "yes." She then responded with, "Well, then you just can't stop." Then she went on to explain to me that I have 3 siblings.

No Divorce

I figured that I should probably post a little update on here too. I dismissed my divorce case a few weeks ago. Ben and I have decided to work on things, and are pretty much figuring it out as we go. But, we are staying married and for now Ben is still living in CO.

14 week appointment

Everything went well with my 14 week appointment. The baby's heartbeat was between 150 bpm and 161 bpm. I go back in 4 weeks, and in the meanwhile I need to talk to the insurance again. Depending on how that goes, I will decided which blood test if any I will be getting at my next appointment. Also, I need to call to schedule my 20 week ultrasound soon. I only have 5 more weeks until hopefully we will know if the baby is a boy or girl, and I'm sure that time is going to go by fast.

6 year old check up and flu shots

Friday was Carissa's 6 year old check up, and she got the second dose of the flu shots. She did great at her appointment, including the shots. She has decided that if you relax shots aren't as bad, a very good idea. It has taken a couple of months, but finally all three of us are done with flu shots. Carissa is 43 1/2" tall, and weighs 40 lbs. She grew 3 inches over the last year.

Carissa's Party and Ultrasound

On Friday morning, Ben and I went to my ultrasound appointment. I still had the ultrasound, but I won't be getting the integrated screening afterall. The insurance won't pay for one of the lab tests, and would have paid for a list of all the other components. As it turns out it is an all or nothing test, so I won't be doing it. But, I still had the ultrasound and I screening for risk factors and we aren't in any high risk groups. We got pictures of the baby's hand and foot to take home.

Then that evening was Carissa's party. She got to have her birthday cake, and then she opened presents and played for a little while before going home.

Carissa's Birthday

Carissa's 6th birthday was on Wed. and she got to take a treat to school with her for her class. They finished the whole bag of oreos that she brought. Then after school, we dropped Gabe off at his gymnastics class and went to pick up Ben at the airport. Then we headed to pick up Gabe from my mom, because Gabe's class was over before we left the airport. Once we were all together, we headed over to Joe's Crab Shack for some dinner. That was Carissa's choice for dinner, and she got to be a pretty, pretty princess while they sang Happy Birthday to her. Then tonight we will go to my parents' house to have cake and for Carissa to open her presents. I was kind of surprised that when I gave her the choice of opening the presents from me on her birthday or waiting until tonight that she picked to wait until tonight.

These are the photos that Joe's Crab Shack took: