Pre K firsts

I really think we made a good decision with putting Waylon in Pre-K. He's already making so much progress and it's only been a few weeks! He's started his language therapy and from what I hear is doing well.

I was really excited to hear that he's starting to interact more with the other kids. My poor boy has never really been around many kids his age, so while he's extremely comfortable with his teachers and other adults, and older kids, he's not been so eager to hang out with the kids in his class. I was so happy to hear that last Monday he participated with the other kids and did the "Bear Hunt" song. Apparently this song requires the kids to run around the room like crazies when they find the "bear." Well, his teacher said that he did so well that she decided to play the song again, and the 2nd time around him & another little boy ran smack into each other and Waylon won himself a black eye! When Mrs. Christy called to tell me, I think my reaction was like, "Oh my goodness!! He was participating and doing the motions and everything?!? Oh yeah, his eye will be ok, but really? He was really doing it?" She probably thinks I'm a nut now & that I don't care about my child's welfare. She seemed to be much more upset than I was, and all I could talk about was how proud I was of him! I think it was more traumatic for her since he was their first ever black eye.

They did some testing the first week of school to see where the kids were and what kinds of things they would need to work on throughout the year. Waylon did not score so good. Very, very low. But, I do think that he gets VERY easily distracted and that test probably wasn't very interesting to him. Anyway, his teacher said not to get too worked up yet, that he's already making progress and he'll continue to throughout the year. She assures us that the end of the year test will be drastically improved. The test did reveal though, that he may have some problems some of his fine motor skills and a little of his gross motor skills, so the next step is to get him screened for OT and PT. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but if he really needs the therapy, then I'm glad we're finding all this out now. I'm hoping that over the next 2 years, we can get him where he needs to be and ready to do well in kindergarten.

Overall, I am very happy with how well he's doing. I think that his teachers are doing an amazing job with him and I feel such a peace about the decisions we're making!! It's such an awesome feeling to see this boy open up and blossom in such a short period of time! I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year brings!

I smell Fall in the air...wait, no, maybe it's just cover scent...

While everyone else is posting about the excitement of fall approaching, the excitement of the fall foliage, football, etc; there is a different kind of excitement going on in the Rodgers' home. Not that we don't enjoy the approach of Gator football season, we are excited about that, but there is another, dare I say more important reason for fall excitement in our house...oh yes, fall marks the beginning of hunting season. Some families mark their seasons with football, we mark ours starting in March with spring turkey. After that follows a summer of scouting and getting stands and food plots ready, then comes September with bow season, then moving into black powder, fall turkey, and general gun wrapping things up in January.

Over the summer we enjoy riding the 4-wheeler in the woods, just looking around, and Jesse scouting for the next season. The past few weekends have been spent with food plots, putting out corn and getting stands moved to just the right spots. Over the weekend we went riding and Jesse took the boys up in one of his stands for the first time. I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but both of them loved it; Wyatt was very upset that he had to get down!

These boys are destined to be lovers of hunting. They have been riding the woods on that 4-wheeler since they were each about 4 months old. I would leave for work in the evenings to Jesse strapping their carseats to the 4-wheeler and off they'd ride, doing all kinds of "man stuff." To this day, that is one of their favorite things to do with Daddy. As we're riding through the woods, they'll randomly yell "Look!! A buck!!" (usually there is no deer to be seen, because with 2 certain somebodies yakking away, we've all but scared them off, but they do like to pretend!). They can spot a picture of a turkey, deer, or hog and know what it is and what it "says." Their Daddy is super proud of that!

They only have a couple more years at home with Momma, and then all my guys will be in the woods from September until January! They just have to practice being still and using their "woods voice", which they haven't quite mastered yet. Oh well, give them a few more years, and they'll be shushing me as I'm opening my Little Debbie, or turning pages in my book, or playing games on my iPod as I sit waiting on the big one to come by.

We're hoping for lots of luck this year, hopefully I'll have good hunting stories and lots of pictures this season. I'm going to try to get out there a little more this year, maybe I'll get a monster....

I'm so glad I'm a part.....

This past Sunday, our family decided that (as Jesse says) we have been "renting" from MPBC long enough, and it was time to buy. Time to stop borrowing that pew and make it official. Yep, after attending MPBC for about 9 months now, we decided to join the church!

I've been hearing in the announcements on Sunday mornings how there are needs and positions in the church to be filled, and I'm really excited to see what plans God has for us to serve Him! I'm also very excited about the married couples Sunday School class that Kimberly & Stephen are starting up in the next couple of weeks (right guys?!?).

MPBC has always made us feel very welcome, we love the people there, and we're so glad to now be an official part of the church family!

Fun in the Sun

Let's see how many posts we'll have on the splash park day! A couple of weeks ago I called up Carrie to see if her & Allie would like to come with Wyatt & I to play at the splash park. She thought that sounded great, so I asked her to ask Annie if her & Belle would like to come. Well, a week or so later (yesterday) we ended up at the splash park with a grand total of 7 mommies & 7 kiddos!! Myself and Wyatt were there, my sister Tania (who came just for fun, her kids are in school), Carrie & Allie, Annie & Belle, my friend Danay & her kids, Colt & Kinsley; my friend from work, Cameron & her son Alex; and Amanda with her son Mathias. Whew! That was a crowd!! We had a great time, sat and visited and watched the kids play. They ranged from Colt being the oldest at 2 1/2, to Belle being the youngest turning 1 in December. It was a perfect weather day, and I have to say that the fountains didn't have as much pressure behind them, but that was perfect for our little guys.

Wyatt started out being a little bratty, but some goldfish did the trick. Allie loved the water immediately, and came over to pouty Wyatt to try to talk him in to coming to play. Or maybe she was just eyeing those fishies....either way, Wyatt wasn't super impressed. He's not too into girls yet hahaha!!

Allie was so excited that she also tried to tell Kinsley how much fun the water was. (And thank goodness Allie didn't notice her old Timmy Turtle look-a-like friend behind her that the "bikini moms" brought...I could do a whole other blog post on the "bikini moms" but I'll spare you all!) Kinsley was a little hesitant to get out there, but with some help from Momma & big brother Colt showing her how it was done, she did just fine.

She even ventured out on her own eventually!!

Belle & Allie were best buds as usual, with the more splash park experienced Allie showing her how to do the "froggie."

Mathias enjoyed himself alot too, and especially the ball and buckets that some of the other families had brought. Thank goodness for those other people bringing extra fun stuff that our kids "borrowed!"

I never did get any pictures of Alex, he's so FAST!!!

I'm so glad that so many of my good friends from very different parts of my life were able to get together and meet each other and have such a great time. I can't wait to do it again, so you girls be thinking of another fun outing!!

Cousins, Bugs, and a Princess Bike

Last Saturday, we went to Jesse's sister Christy's house to celebrate our niece Leah's 4th birthday. The boys LOVE their cousin and the feeling is mutual as whenever we walk in the door, Leah always (no joke, every time) yells excitedly "My cousins!! My cousins are here!!"

The boys played outside the entire time we were there. Wyatt thought our nephew Patrick was super cool because he caught a butterfly in Leah's bug catcher.



That was all fun and good, but Christy & I didn't think it was super cool when Patrick caught this bumblebee too. Can you see that stinger?!? OUCH!!


Patrick tried to trick Leah by rubbing some of the yellow off the butterfly's wing and telling her that if she ate it she'd be able to fly. As you can tell by this picture, she was slightly disgusted by the idea, and (thankfully) didn't believe him! Geez, I wonder if all big brothers are like that? I can't imagine what Waylon will try to talk Wyatt into doing. Wow, ER here we come!

The big hit of the day was Leah's new princess bike and helmet. She wore the helmet and elbow pads most of the time while we were there, but as soon as he got a chance, Waylon had to try them out. I have to admit, even though it's pink, he does look stinkin' cute in that helmet!! He's very secure in his manhood already, well, maybe he just REALLY wanted to get a turn with that helmet & bike!!

We've survived the first week...almost...one more day to go!

I know I said I was going to wait until Friday to do a big first week of PreK post, but I have a little time today, so here it is.

Day 1- Dropped him off, he acted like he'd been doing it all his life, no tears, no nothing. However it did take 45 minutes of crying for him to go to sleep at naptime.

Day 2- He CRIED!! But by the time I made it back to mom's office and called to the room to check on him, he was ok. Asleep in 2 minutes at naptime.

Day 3- Aunt Tania dropped him off, he cried, and Mrs. Christy said it was about 10:30 before he quit whining. Naptime was great, he was ready and went right to sleep.

Day 4- He started crying when we pulled into the parking lot. Screamed when I peeled him off of me and handed him off to Mrs. Wendy. Maybe I cried a little too. The lady that does sidewalk duty by his building (whom I have no idea who she is) stopped me and gave me a hug and reassurance as I walked out of his building a bawling mess! Bless her heart, she was so sweet! I got back to mom's office to get Wyatt and Mom called over to Way's classroom, he was still whiny and joined to Mrs. Wendy's hip, but getting better. Mrs. Christy called me about 9:15 and said he was better and participating, and she was excited that it didn't take until 10:30 today!! She also said she was going down the list and calling mommas to ease minds. It seems he's not the only one. Tuesday and Wednesday, one other kid was crying when I dropped him off today, there were at least 4 of them howling.

God bless Mrs. Christy & Mrs. Wendy. I know when I leave him, even though it KILLS me, I know he's in good hands & that they seem to love all those kids almost as much as us mommies & daddies do.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon, we're still getting used to this whole school routine, and Mr. is not all about getting his picture taken or anything else while we're fighting to get ready in the mornings. He likes to lay in his bed and say, "I no go school. It night-night time." Yeah, wonder where he gets that stubborn streak from?

Pre-K Preview

Well, Waylon took the big step...he started Pre-K on Monday. I'm going to wait to do a big post at the end of the week, as I'm sure I'll have very interesting things to post!! More to come...