The Moore You Know

Since I’m writing this you know that I’m no longer up to my knees pee. : ) Ok it was never actually that bad. I don’t know if it’s a girl thing or not but Rory never has to pee. On Friday I started liquoring her up (with juice and chocolate milk.) But even after drinking ounces upon ounces she still only went like 3 times. How do you potty train a kid like that? My boys have to pee every five seconds! So it took a little longer for her to get the hang of it, just because of sheer numbers. But she hasn’t had an accident all day, today!  Woohoo! I have officially changed my last diaper as a mother. Crazy! But yay for me!

For listening to my potty talk here’s a song I’ve been loving lately.

One of my biggests stresses for the last few years has been school. And when I think about it, my kids are only in 2nd grade. Wow it’s going to get a lot worse. But since the first preschool the boys went to I knew the teachers very well. School plus Xander just doesn’t always mix. When we moved to Utah I really looked at schools and everyone loved their current school, Eagle Bay. So I was excited. But I just have not loved it. Which I feel, kind of snobbish saying that but it’s true. It just does not seem to be right for my family. With Xander we’ve gotten a teacher that seems to have the patience and understanding with him, which is good but when he goes to specials like library and PE, it’s not as good. Then with Chiler he came into first grade ahead and has remained but hasn’t really been challenged. It seems like the school and it’s curriculm only teach to the middle. If your child is ahead then great that’s one less child to worry about. They just have to cool their heels and wait. The kids that are behind get extra assistance from volunteers that come in and help with reading and math. But the kids that aren’t getting challenged get to assist other kids wait until all the other kids have finally caught up to them. It’s very frustrating to me. I don’t think my kids are supreme geniuses or anything but I do want them to be challenged and for them to reach their individual potential.

So I’ve been searching for something else. The first thing I looked into was a district program called “Spectrum.” It is for “gifted and talented” kids. You have to apply for the program, the kids have to take test and then about 25% of the kids get in. The way the program is taught is more out of the box learning. And the expectation is that the kids can move through things more quickly so there are less worksheets and more hands on projects. When I heard that I thought how perfect that would be for Xander. He’s a square peg not fitting into the round peg traditional school hole. Even with teachers and school counselors saying that it would be a really good thing for him, there is no guarentee he can get in, it all rides on this test. And if he does get into the program he has to go to a school in a different town. How dumb is that? Not only are his education needs not getting met, there’s a possibility they won’t get met AND I’d have to take him to a totally different school to get his needs met.

So I just kept looking around. Someone told me that there was a Charter School in West Kaysville which is about 5-10 minutes away from where I live. I looked it up online and it’s main study of focus in American History (awesome!) They have four classes for every grade and they’re K-9 so Dax could go to it next year too. When Lance and I went on a tour of the school with the Assistant Director he said most of the kids are reading and doing math a grade above what they are. They go to a different classroom for math depending on their ability. They have a lot of hands on projects, there are computers in the classrooms that the teachers really utilize. The kids kept coming up to the assistant director and gave him hugs. He knew all of the kids’ names and encouraged every kid that he came into contact with. I couldn’t have been more happy than when I walked through those halls.

I knew that this was the answer to my prayers. And it truly was because all three of my boys were drawn out of the lottery for admittance into this school. The chance of even one of them getting in wasn’t great but all three of them were selected. It is truly a sustaining miracle. It’s not a cure all. All of a sudden school is going to be wonderful for all my kids but I think it will be a huge improvement and I think it’s going to help us get through the next few years.

Enjoying her birthday ice cream.

Last Monday Rory turned three.  I cannot believe she is so old. Lance was saying the other day that he was working with her to ride Dax’s old training wheels bike and I said, “She’s not big enough!” And he quickly corrected me that she was. She is still my baby! She is such a joy to have in our lives. Her brothers protect her like crazy. She’ll get in trouble for not sitting down at the table or something and her brother defend her to no end and get so mad at Lance and I when she gets in trouble. Look out any boy in her future! : ) She’s loving princesses and Dora right now. She gets sooo excited to go and play with friends. I totally need to set up more play dates for her. She’s a very happy go lucky kid until someone messes with her. Then the “oh no you di’ent” comes out and you better watch out. She’s a total animal lover and animals love her too. My parents’ grumpy dog, who snaps and bites everyone, lets Rory get away with EVERYTHING! He is not like that with any other grandkid.

Her new earrings. It's really hard to get a pic of a moving child's ear. : )

For her third birthday we went and got her ears’ pierced. Lance’s sister, Rachel and I wanted to get her ears pierced so badly when she was a baby but Lance was the hold out. So I kind of jumped at the chance of him saying he wanted to.

Now I need you guys to hold me to this. I’m going to potty train Rory on Friday. It is seriously the worse part of parenting so far. So here I go. I’m getting myself psyched up for this! I can do this, it’s my last one! I keep hearing that girls are so much easier than boys. And all I can think about is the hard time Alicia had with Macey and not all girls are easy. Am I right, Alicia??? So wish me luck!

Rory is terrified of fire and quickly moved the flames away from her.

Minnie Mouse themed cupcakes.

Presents!

A couple of months ago Lance and I were talking and I got the distinct impression that Lance needed to have a leadership calling and that I needed to pray for it. So I started praying for it.  In my mind I was thinking Elder’s Quorum Presidency, something like that.  But he ended up being called to be a High Councilman.  He’s gone a lot on Sundays and his work load is actually a little higher right now because they created a whole new Stake. It has been fun for him to see everything go from the ground up. But also a lot of work.  And I think that I got that impression because now, looking back, I know that my prayers were answered and that’s why my husband it so dang busy.