Bringing up Ben & Becca: September 2017

Thursday, September 28, 2017

8th Grade Picture

Ben thinks he is so sneaky, he never even tells me when it's picture day. But I found proofs in his backpack - so there, Ben!

I just have to brag about Becca for a minute - she got her End of Grade test scores from last year, and she only missed 1 question on the literacy EOG and 2 questions on the math EOG. Her score report gave her Quantile Framework for Math and Lexile Framework for Reading scores that as near as I can figure are both around the 50th percentile for 7th grade students. Her high scores (and good grades last year) have landed her in the gifted program this year, where unfortunately so far she is NOT happy to be because she dislikes the gifted teacher and is having enough stress about completing her regular work on time, without the added extra work. Still trying to figure all of this out, but super duper proud of her!

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Tic Tacs

Caroline's latest in an ongoing attempt to show up her sister: I was practicing with Becca trying to get her to learn to swallow a pill. We're switching her from Metadate CD to Vyvanse for her ADHD management, and the pills are harder to open. They are also smaller because (at least for now) we are starting with a low dose so I thought she can learn to swallow them. So anyway she is practicing trying to swallow Tic Tacs. For the life of her she CAN NOT DO IT. We went through an entire box of Tic Tacs over the last two days. She can intermittently swallow a half Tic Tac, so progress. But Caroline marches up to us and demands to try it herself, grabs a Tic Tac and a glass of water and swallows it on the first try no problem. And then does three more just for good measure.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Birthday Dinner Number 2

I believe this was Becca's second birthday dinner this month, the first one being in Philadelphia with her aunt and uncles and grandma and grandpa and one of her cousins. For this dinner, papa and Mary and cousins Charlie and Amelia were along. Becca has certainly gotten serenaded with the birthday song quite a lot this month! She had a stomach ache and headache so wasn't in the happiest mood but she still managed to eat filet mignon and chocolate cake!

She's Officially 10!

Happy birthday to our wonderful girl! It's been a busy, busy last couple of weeks - getting back into the school routines, high holidays, and fall soccer. Becca requested a very specific birthday dinner of steak, broccolini, rice and Carvel Cookie Puss ice cream cake :) So I am working on pulling all of that together for tonight :)

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Few More Birthday Weekend Pics

Birthday Weekend

Becca and I flew to Philly on Friday and had a great weekend spoiling her rotten with the help of Aunt Kathleen and Grandma! We had lunch downtown and visited the Liberty Bell, got mani-pedis, went shopping at the mall, went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Alex and cousin Annie, went to a carnival, and of course Lady Gaga! We also ate Way. Too. Much. Junk food.

Here are some pictures:

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Thursday Update

1. Ben came down with the back to school stomach bug (that didn't take long) and has spent the last 2 days upstairs in bed. Hoping he can get back to school tomorrow - poor kid!

2. Caroline is having a tough time adjusting to the new schedule for Kindergarten - she has to get up an hour earlier than she is used to. We're trying to put her to bed earlier as well, but it's tough. She's either super cranky in the morning, super cranky in the afternoon, or both. Today she was fine this morning but then fell asleep before dinner and was a wreck when we woke her up.

3. Becca and I leave for our girls' weekend in Philly tomorrow morning! So excited! Everyone here in Charlotte is freaking out about hurricane Irma , which is not expected to impact the Carolinas until Monday night / Tuesday as far as I know, but the lines at the grocery store were ridiculous when I was there this afternoon ("Should I be buying something other than soup, gatorade and cumin?" I texted Joel as I was surrounded in the checkout line by people with carts loaded up with groceries). Hopefully we won't get stuck in Philadelphia, since we're supposed to fly home Monday!