The Girls Are Sick!!!

So Kaytlynn had the croup last Wed. She missed school Wednesday and Thursday...and so did I. She stayed home with Todd on Friday. By Friday, the croup was gone, but she now, rattled when she coughed and had a fever. Todd took her to the doctor again, after she went into a coughing fit and could not stop...she was the color of lavender. The doc wasn't concerned and sent her home with a decongestant...Delaney too, because at this point, she is showing the same symptoms...just not as bad.
She gets worse...last night she was coughing and Todd felt her and said she was burning up. Her fever was at 103.7. This morning it was 104.5. We took her to the emergency room...and the doctor said she needed to take Kaytlynn's blood to see if we were dealing with a virus or bacterial infection. Kaytlynn of course was so sad to hear she had to get a shot. I told her that we could get anything she wanted if she was brave...clothes, a new movie, shoes, whatever. She said she wanted a fan...a paper one. I told her we would make one as soon as we got home. She was brave...she only cried when they were actually giving her the shot and she was nice and still for the nurse too. It was viral...both girls have bronchitis...Kaytlynn's was still worse than D's. We are keeping them on the decongestant that the 2nd doctor gave her...this Doctor also prescribed cortisone spray for the nose and breathing treatments for Kaytlynn. Now we just sit and wait for them to be better!

We did make a fan when we got home though. She chose it from my scrap paper. We just folded it back and forth and stapled it at the bottom...and she was SO proud of it. How easy to please is she!!!!!

On a side note...Last night Todd pulled out Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It was really neat going down memory lane watching that movie again. It was the first movie Sean Connery was in and I used to think he was so gorgeous...and still do! The girls enjoyed and it and so did Todd. It was all of their first time to watch it! I love it when we all pile on the bed and watch a movie together as a family...everyone is so happy, gigglie and content.

My Misplaced Hands

So....I'm friends with Linda Ellis. She's is at least acquaintances, if not good friends with, anybody who is anybody in the reading community. She invited me to dinner with Dick Allington. Richard Allington has been researching good teaching and learning within the reading and total classroom for about 40 years...literally. So, as people say, "He's the Man"! After dinner, I ask if he will take a pic with Linda and me. He agrees, and searches for a good background. He decides on a park bench under gold lettering that says "Saltgrass Steakhouse" with a picture of a longhorn underneath it. So we sit on the bench...one girl on either side of Dick. He has his arms around both of us and we are talking a giggling. I am at a little bit of an awkward position leaning into him...and I'm always very clumsy when I get gigglie! The girl takes the picture of us and hands the camera to me, so that we can view the digital image...so that we can approve, or disapprove of the shot just taken. Well, as I lean over more, so that both Dick and Linda can look at it...I drop the camera. In my reaction of not wanting the camera to fall, I reach and grab it. At this point my hand and wrist is literally resting on HIS CROTCH!!! I just about died and he is joking around and laughing...in a split second of all this laughing...I drop the dang camera again...and catch it AGAIN!!!! He is really laughing now...the people standing around us, and Linda are bent over with laughter. I am completely red faced and he says "I've heard of aggressive Texas women...but Wow!
The next day at the conference (it is the reason why he was in town)...he always had something to say to me and then ended up signing his new book...by first asking "Just who will be looking at this book" and then wrote....Watch those Hands!
The conference, by the way, was incredible. He is absolutely so knowledgeable about different research and the research that is called research, but is really profitable garbage. I wish I could listen to him more often!

My Little Counters

Kaytlynn has been practicing counting. She can count to 30, but still skips 15 and sometimes 20. Delaney though, has been listening to us and she can count to 30 too! She has been counting trains and cars as we pass them when we are driving around! She misses a few numbers here and there...and never really the same ones...but it is very cute to hear her!

Tea Party

We went to Peyton Crenshaw's Birthday party today. It was at her grandmother's house who lives in Conroe. The company that did it was called Little Miss Tea Time. She brought Victorian lace dresses, necklaces, bracelets, hats, purses, etc. They played silly games, did a fashion show, and had tea and cookies (and cake and ice cream). The girls all had a great time. Delaney was even 2nd to the last left in musical chairs...it took quite a bit of prodding, but she got competitive once she got into the groove of it.

Afterwards, we drove to Best Buy so that I could let Todd run in and get the new Tiger Woods game for his Wii. It was his birthday present and he was quite happy that he got it!

Kaytlynn Is Reading!!!

I can't tell you how exciting it is to watch it happen with your own baby. Here I am, a reading teacher that has taught literally hundreds of kids to be a better reader over the past 10 years, and I have always loved that thrill, but to watch it with Kaytlynn is a totally different animal.

She has been learning her sight words. She gets 3 new ones each week. She goes to school 3 days a week, so really it is a new one each day. Its hard. Its a lot more than public school...they are at 6 words in Kindergarten right now at the school that I teach at. But the amazing thing is...She is doing it! Right now the words she can read are...

It, See, In, Three, Can, His, Four, Is, Two, One, Here, I, And, This, Mother, A, The, Has

She has also been working on her letter recognition, and letter sounds.

Today when it was time to introduce her 3 new sight words...I didn't tell her what the word was, like I usually do. I just let her sound it out...AND SHE DID IT!!! YAY! I was so proud of her. The word was His...she saw the word IS in it and knew to put an H in front...I couldn't have screamed. Tomorrow is our Parent Teacher conference, so I am hoping to hear good things.