It’s hard to believe 2006 is almost over! It doesn’t even feel like winter out here this year, which is great — trust me I’m not complaining. It’s been the best fall that I can remember since moving from BC out here.

This morning it is raining, no — I mean POURING! The kids left the house for the bus and were soaked by the time they hit the sidewalk. Q’s umbrella broke seconds after that. We called Em back in, gave them all hot chocolate and my hubby drove them to school. They didn’t want to miss the day, we were going to keep them home. They love school. Q has a spelling test each Friday and so far he’s been coming home with perfect scores, he didn’t want to have a zero for not showing up. Em’s love of school probably has more to do with the social aspect of it. She doesn’t want to miss out on anything! Li will go this afternoon and if it’s still raining this hard (the area beyond our backyard is starting to flood) then my hubby will drive him as well.

I enjoyed watching him the other day during the parent/teacher observation time, it wasn’t as much of a meeting as I thought it would be. The teacher told me that the office ladies love him. He was dropped off early one day, so my hubby could join Q on a field trip, and entertained them all. He’s now a big hit. I’m really glad he hasn’t been a handful. When I say handful I don’t mean disruptive, a terror or a trouble maker, that doesn’t describe any of my kids. “Focus” is the word used the most around Li. Having to repeat things over and over again. It is getting better the older he gets and the longer he’s in school. School has really helped him and I’m amazed how quickly he’s learning. He is quite smart!

Jake’s starting to give me temper tantrums. He’s not even 17 months. I will nip it in the bud early. We don’t allow the kids to manipulate situations using outbursts as a means of communication. Whinning —- I still have to work on that with the kids, they get away with it far more than I’d like. The older kids learned very early on that throwing themselves on the floor – kicking and screaming – wouldn’t get them anything but a “re-training” session. We were of course harder on our first born and relaxed a bit by the time the 3rd came along… we need to correct that. We don’t want our first born resenting any of his siblings or us for training him differently from the rest.

Well, it’s time to get ready for work. TGIF!! If I don’t talk to you soon — I hope you all have a great weekend!