January 2016

After a fantastic holidays with lots of time off to enjoy as a family... January came around and it was back to the grind of our crazy daily life! The first exciting thing that happened was Carter was moved up from the toddler room (class with kids 18 months- 3) and is now in the primary class (3 - kindergarten). Carters class is called the Oak Room and his lead teacher is Miss Vanessa and her assistant is Miss Nazareen. Justin and I met with Miss Vanessa and we could not be happier with the placement of Carter in her class. She is a very experienced teacher that is very firm but extremely loving to the kids. She comes with very high reviews so we are excited to see our boy thrive under her leadership. Carter was so excited to move into the big class that the transition was uneventful and very easy. He loves that he now comes home with "work" just like his sister. Work in the Montissory context is any type of school work he does i.e. art, cutting, writing, etc.. He even made the school newsletter for the first time!

Cater in the school newsletter!

My little diva... loves her clip on earrings!

My little tiger in his nike wind suit... thanks Paw Paw!

The kids and baby Mags. When there is an opportunity Riley will have her hands on that baby. They adore her so much! 

Dinner with family at Zachary's in Kingwood. The kids love how this New Orleans restaurant calls your name and says, " Justin where ya at?" when your food is ready! No place like home!

My happy big boy! 

Carter is working on identifying all the sounds.. he is doing fantastic

 The family picture Riley drew for me. Luca is the dog with no tail. Riley drew only herself with a dress. 

 Riley is doing awesome with her skip counting and her numbers

 Carters Art work! 

Carters Cutting work... he is working on cutting on the lines

 Carter rocking his spider man PJ's!

Sneak Peak!!! Riley's recital costume!

 Riley's adding work

A funny video of my two man band.. in my house Christmas Carols are year round! 

In October I went on an overnight work trip to Dallas. Of course while I was gone.. Justin got a call from school letting him know that Riley was complaining of ear pain and he needed to come and get her. Riley has had ear tubes twice and since her second set (December 2012 - but fell out six months later) she has really not had ear infections. When Justin picked her up he took her to walgreens to get checked at the clinic and she was diagnosed with an ear infection. I remember this ear infection because she was in a great deal of pain and was just miserable. After that antibiotic... a month later she was complaining again about her ear and was again diagnosed with another infection. I brought her to the Dr in December for her 5 year visit and they gave her a hearing test and she did not pass. After review from the doctor she said her ears were still fluid filled and put her on yet another round of antibiotics. Justin and I were very concerned and took her back to see the ENT really thinking we were in for another round of tubes. To our surprise... no tubes needed for Riley... come to find out she has a ruptured eardrum which is the cause of all the infections. She now has a hole in her ear so anything thats get in her ear especially bath water will cause an infection. We are taking very good care of her ears and keeping everything out of them... and praying that the eardrum heals itself so she will not need surgery. The ENT wants to see her every other month to monitor her progress. If the eardrum does not heal itself she would potentially need surgery but that would not happen until she is around 8 years old. The below picture is pretty gross but shows what he ears were looking like... my poor baby.