Another bulleted list

Just because there is so much going on:

First up is stuff about the kids:

• Kenny’s teacher has been calling him "Kenneth" in class. He told my sister, Heather, about it yesterday. She said he seemed really upset over it. So, I brought it up again and he seemed bothered by it. He puts "Kenny" on all his homework and papers. So, I called my other sister who is a teacher (Holycowitsme) and she said to have Kenny say in a polite way, "Please call me Kenny." But, that if he was too nervous to do that (he is only 5), I should write the teacher a note or email requesting that he be called "Kenny." I talked to him about it and he seemed really reluctant to tell his teacher to call him Kenny. So, I wrote the email. I tried to say it in a nice way. I did. But I’m pretty sure she’s going to take it as me being snotty. I’ve had problems with her before and it’s only kindergarten. 
  • WARNING VENT IN THIS PARAGRAPH: Yes, Kenny’s full name is Kenneth James Lastname. He’s named for my grandfather and great uncle (and James is also hubby’s middle name). But, we’ve never called him "Kenneth" or even "Ken." He’s 5 years old and those are OLD names. He’s a little boy. Besides that, my grandfather went by "Kenny" as well. I want him called Kenny. It’s his name. And when the teacher actually has a sheet at the open house with a line asking "what your child prefers to be called" and I filled that sheet out AND it’s the name he puts on all of his work, you’d think she’d get the picture. Call him by the right name. It just pisses me off. My older sister calls him Ken sometimes and it drives me bonkers. His name is KENNY. KENNY KENNY KENNY! Get it right, dammit. ~Vent over.
• Kenny had a test at school called AIMSweb testing. Here’s the description "The purpose of the screening is to help identify students at risk for falling short of year-end academic targets. Your child was screened in one area of reading: letter naming fluency. In math, your child was screened in four areas: Oral Counting, Number Identification, Quantity Discrimination, and Missing Number. A brief description of each area, the benchmark or minimum (25%) recommended score for each area, the school target (50%), and your child’s results in each of these areas below.
  • Letter Naming Fluency: Benchmark 5 letters, School Goal 17 letters, Kenny’s score 44 letters in a minute
    Oral Counting: Benchmark count up to 22, school goal count up to 38, Kenny’s score counted to 66 in a minute
    Number Identification: Benchmark recognize 13 numbers, school target recognize 30 numbers, Kenny’s score, recognized 56 numbers (between 0 to 10) in a minute
    Quantity Discrimination (which number is bigger): Benchmark is 4, school target is 10, Kenny’s score was 28 in a minute
    Missing number: Benchmark is 1, School target is 4, Kenny’s score was 18
  • So, I feel Kenny did pretty damn good. Of course these scores don’t really mean anything to me unless I know how well other kids his age actually perform(ed) on this test. If all the kids had scores like these, then ROCK ON we have some smart kids ahead of the government goals. If he blew everybody out of the water with his scores, then ROCK ON I have a smart kid who probably needs to be challenged to keep up with where he’s going. If he’s got lower scores than everybody else that  took it then we need to see about what can be done to help him improve. Can’t wait for parent teacher conference night.
  • If anybody knows what ANY of this really means, feel free to clue me in.
• Evan is doing SUPER good in Pre-K. I’m not sure if he’s seen the speech therapist yet, but I sent an email and expect a reply soon. He loves to ride the bus. He loves to play in the "drama center" (it’s dress up and a toy kitchen). He’s so different than Kenny. Kenny ALWAYS loved to play with the blocks and art center.
• Evan is also 90% potty trained! WOOH! I say 90% because he still holds his poop in until his poor little body can’t take it anymore and sometimes he just has an accident because of it. AND tonight is the very first night he’s going to bed WITHOUT a diaper on! YAY!

And now for me and Nathan stuff

• Our 10th anniversary was on September 29. I mentioned it to him the week before and he says to me, "I haven’t bought you anything or planned anything for it. Was I supposed too?" And then he smiled at me in that innocent way that shows me he’s not kidding or planning a surprise. I literally pouted over it for a couple of days. A few days later I told him that it really hurt my feelings. That 10 years is a MILESTONE and I wanted it to be special. And now it was pretty much ruined because he didn’t realize that. He asked me if I wanted him to purchase me something and I told him that I did, but that I wanted it to be something special that he put a lot of thought into and not just some nick-nack or random item. It has to be thoughtful. And I told him it wouldn’t be as special because I had to tell him that I wanted something. I was all geared up for flowers (which he knows I love) or some piece of computer equipment because those are easy outs that he knew would work. Yeah. I was wrong. The man actually did put thought into the gift. He asked me if it was OK if he went to get my gift on Saturday (once again reinforcing the idea that it was probably computer related), I said yes. So, I had plans on Saturday so he took my car "shopping."  He didn’t buy me computer stuff. He didn’t even buy me flowers or jewelry. My husband? He bought me a remote start kit for my P.O.S. car even though I’ll probably only have the car for another 6 months. He had it installed too. I’ve wanted one of those for so long. It’s a BLOCK to my car from work. And it’s down a narrow and windy street. I feel the cold so terribly. Well, this starter kit will work from the window of my building so that I can start the baby up and get it toasty by the time I’m able to walk down to it this winter! YAY! It’s actually a GREAT gift for me too. I love it.  What did I get for Nathan? I got him an ice cream cake (which he LOVED), me in a little something something, and I wrote him a love letter. It’s corny, I know but I don’t write for him very often because I don’t like to be judged even on the cornball standard. But I did and I gave it to him and he liked it. 

And now for random

• I had $125 in Amazon.com giftcards. I bought a couple of Kindle books. And then I shopped around. I decided to buy something I wouldn’t n

ormally by with my own money and it would have to be for ME to enjoy. So, I ordered 4 pop-up books. Two arrived last week. I got Heroes and Gods which is the most breath-taking pop-up I’ve ever held in my hands. I also ordered "Wicked" the musicals pop-up book. It was slightly disappointing but still a fun book. I also ordered a Harry Potter pop up book that is designed by the people who did the story boards for the movies (that comes in November) and a Roman art and architecture book that should be here some time this week or next. I love these books! If I had time and more money, I could become an obsessive collector of them.

Time to help Nathan put the groceries away. There’s nothing else really going on anyhow. Sigh..