Fall 2014

We have had a lot of funny sayings lately!

Andy (on Thanksgiving):  I'm so thankful for you, Johnny.  You are such a great son, you are so sweet and smart, and you were the one who made me a dad.
John (after some thinking):  I'm thankful for fat William Howard Taft.

John's new song:  I want to travel to Antarctica, travel in the dark-tica, travel on a lark-tica!

John has lost two teeth and has had two visits from the tooth fairy.  The first time, he wrote to the tooth fairy and asked her to bring him a book instead of money.  He is not quite on board with the tooth fairy though.  He doesn't believe in fairies, but knows that whatever takes the tooth and leaves the book must be small and smart.  His first guess was a tooth rat.  Then, when he saw the pink curly writing on the tooth fairy's first note to him, he thought it might be a tooth flamingo.

Andy: Put on your PJs.
John: Why are so many people using imperative sentences?

John:  Who is the composer of Gangnam Style?

I had the stomach flu and was staying away from the boys before they left for school.  I heard John getting ready to leave and shouted "Bye, John, love you, have a great day at school!"  He shouted back, "Bye, love you!.....Sorry about your throw-up sickness!"

He has been thinking ahead to Christmas because of the store they have at school where the kids can buy presents for their family members.  He worked really hard on it, shopping during the preview day, making a list of what he wanted to buy for each person, keeping track of how much each thing cost so that we could send money and totaling it all up.  Then he said "I hope everyone likes their presents."  I said, "I'm sure they will.  Because you put a lot of time and thought and love into it, and that's what matters."  He said, "I mostly put thought into it.  Because I'm smart."  I replied, "Well, you also have a very tender heart, so you put a lot of love into it too!"

John has a great new business plan.  He will be an architect and design a restaurant called ShrimpRia (because -ria means store in Spanish, like tortilleria) and there will be an elaborate tunnel system whereby the workers can go catch the shrimp in the river at the end of the tunnel.  He loves shrimp.

The song "Santa Baby" came on Pandora and we had quite the discussion about it.  Danny:  "Santa Bay-bee?  Dat's like me!"  Then John listened to a few verses and said "Who's singing this song?"  Me: "A woman is telling Santa what she wants for Christmas."  John:  "Why is she talking to Santa like he's her husband?"  He really understood the flirtatious undertones!

Danny:  I wanna watch Specia-bles.  (Incredibles)

Danny loves to stir drinks while saying "miska miska miska"  (mix-a).

He is really loving Ollie lately, he follows him around, hugging him and saying "I love you, Ollie."  Once, he looked up at me and said "Ollie's my best friend."

He also is really trying hard to use complete sentences.  On Thanksgiving, he worked very hard to come up with every word in this sentence:  "We're going to Grandma...and...Grandpa's...house!"

Mom and Dad: "Bye, Danny, love you!"  Danny: "Bye!  Love you!  Gimme hugs!"

We were asking him to eat a bite of ham and then get a bite of chips.  He was going along with it until we changed it up and asked him to eat two bites of ham for a bite of chips.  He ate one bite, and we said "eat another bite, you need another bite of ham before you get chips."  And he got really frustrated, and opened his eyes wide, stretched out his arms in front of him with jazz hands and screamed "I eat it!  I DID!!!!!"

Daycare newsletter for October/November:  "Daniel is so intelligent.  He knows all his shapes, numbers, and colors.  He loves to play with bubbles and to color.  He is a blast to have in class."

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We have had a very nice fall.  First grade has been SO great for John.  He is loving his work with his gifted teacher, Mr. D.  He and the other two gifted first-graders (Prabav and Josh) are thick as thieves.  In fact, they are not allowed to sit by each other in class because they talk too much.  :)  His teacher is so perfect for him.  Since he is advanced in math, he is allowed to do research and make powerpoint presentations during many of the daily math reviews.  I just love how he has grown up so much this year.  He still loves states, and just took a quiz online identifying state capitols and only missed 6!

Daniel has also grown up a lot this fall.  He moved up to the Twos class at school in October, which means he gets to do a lot of fun activities!  He started music class every other week in Twos, he got to trick-or-treat around the strip mall with his class, and we are looking forward to his Christmas program tomorrow!  He is talking so well and enunciating so clearly!  We did have an assessment done by early intervention through the state, because we were worried about his gross motor skills, but the assessment included developmental, emotional, verbal, and vision assessments.  He aced them all, and charmed all of the therapists.  We were so proud!