Halloween week of fun

Remember when Halloween used to be just one day of fun? Well, not any more! It seems like we've been having activities all week.

We went out to Bellarmine University on Monday. The college kids decorated the dorms in all kinds of great themes and handed out candy for the little ones. Check out Sergeant Squash:

And then we went out to Mark's Feed Store for their Halloween party and Batman made a re-appearance...

By the time the actual Halloween gets here, maybe he won't want any candy - you think?

Smell and Memory

We are hanging in there, staying busy and getting ready for a fun Halloween weekend. Things are going better for Daniel at school. He has had a few good days in a row this week so we're hoping we've turned a corner.

Fall is really here and someone was burning leaves last weekend - you know that smell? We walked out the back door of the house and Daniel says immediately, 'Mom, it smells just like this in Ukraine!' He doesn't speak of Ukraine too often and we were surprised. It was so out of the blue. It's amazing how strongly our memories are linked to smells. We had a nice afternoon and attacked the leaves in our yard with vengeance. Daniel was really excited about raking. I think it's cause he knew some fun was coming....

Bits and Notes

Daniel's 2nd tooth came out last week:

I am caving to your peer pressure and giving the tooth fairy a raise. He will be getting one whole dollar for this tooth!

Daniel chose roller skating for his prize after his good week at school. It was a fun time:

Something he couldn't do when he first came here, he has now mastered. After much practice at recess, Daniel can now make it all the way across the monkey bars! (that's something mom can't do!)







AND the Hornets won their last soccer game!







As if the weekend wasn't full enough, he also had a karate tournamet. It was so cute to see how excited he was about his big trophy!! Here he is breaking his board:







And Sparring:

And with his cool trophy and 2 medals. (Jason and I went around all day singing, 'You're the best, around. Nothing's gonna ever keep you down!' The 80's anyone? We totally felt like we were in the Karate Kid movie, with our Daniel son.)

Whew! I am exhausted just thinking back over it all. Now soccer is over and we can rest, right?

Halloween at the zoo

We put on Daniel's fabulous Batman costume in preparation for our trip to the zoo. We were posing in front of the mirror and generally admiring how cool and muscular he is when he looked at me in all seriousness and asked, 'Mom - can I fly?' It was so sweet. I hated having to tell him no. You can pretend to fly, but no - don't jump out the window or anything. :( I hated to burst his bubble of innocence. I totally wanted to say YES this is a magic cape, YES you can fly, and YES mom is the coolest!!

Bummer!

Field Trip

Daniel's field trip today was to Huber's to pick a pumpkin and go through the cartoon corn maze. We had a great time and I am exhausted!

A great week!

At school, if you've had a good week and didn't drop your apple all week - then at the end of the week you get to pick out a treasure from the treasure chest. Well...

After 8 weeks of school,



for the very first time,



Daniel Anatoly got to choose a toy from the treasure chest. (he picked out a calculator by the way)

Whoa!! We are so excited at our house. And here is the verse for the week:

He scores!!

This is Daniel's soccer team, the Hornets:

At last Saturday's game, he scored his first goal! Woo hoo!! We were so excited. I actually couldn't be there, but he called me right after the game and was YELLING into the phone. He was so pumped. I told him he has to do it again this week so I can see it :)

We are still working on the behavior at school. Last week it was yelling out during class, throwing rocks on the playground and Friday he spat on a kid. Yikes! The principal told us that spitting is very common at this age. The boy he spit on was telling another little girl to clean up her area and Daniel thought he was being mean so he spit on him. Yes, it was a bad choice but it came from a good place. He was sticking up for another kid. I praised him for wanting to help her and brainstormed some ideas about what we could have done differently.

We decided we need to be more deliberate in our approach. So Friday, after the trip to the principal for throwing rocks (AGAIN!) we sat down and made a list. We wrote out the rules for school and then the list of consequences for a bad choice. We have the standing in the corner choices, the standing in the corner and straight to bed after dinner choices, and the spanking choices. I am a firm believer that we can't spring a punishment on him. It has to be something we discussed ahead of time, so there is no question about the consequence if he makes a bad choice. We also setup a rewards system. He has 4 behavior areas that we get a daily report on from his teacher. Each day he gets a smile on 3 of the 4 areas, he will earn a sticker. If he can get 4 stickers in one week then he gets a reward (a toy, go roller skating - something special).

So, we have our shiny new system in place - we reviewed everything before school yesterday and off he went. 'I will do good mom!' Yesterday he was yelling out in class again. He yelled out so many times that she had to send him to the principal's office in order to be able to teach in the afternoon. However, he only had one X on his behavior chart. So, he earned a sticker but he still had to stand in the corner (for going to the principal's office). It seems like a weird combination of events. I praised him for the sticker, but still gave him the business about yellling out in class. Hmmm...hopefully our new system will help him to stop and think about the consequence (good or bad) before he makes a choice.

I had no idea that disciplining my kid would be so hard. (I remember very clearly thinking my parents were just mean and that they might even enjoy it. Sorry mom and dad!) It takes so much dedication to stick to your guns. It would be so much easier to just focus on the good stuff (there is a lot) and let the rest slide. Oh how tempting! But I know Daniel will not be able to reach his full potential in life if he does not learn to follow the rules. We are always telling him that bad choices will make him unhappy. That's true all through life - now while he is little but even for adults too. It's my job to teach him that. SIGH! I'd really rather just give out kisses, go on bike rides and play Uno.