PreK Screening

Brennan had his PreK screening done on Tuesday afternoon. I still really don't know a ton about the program that is offered here in Groton, but a mom at church mentioned something about the free screenings and I made an appointment for Brennan. He was so excited about going to "his new school" that leading up to it he kept telling his current preschool teachers he was going to a new a school. So now they all probably think we school shopping. Right now the plan is still to send Brennan back to his current preschool in fall. But if he happens to get a spot in the free public school preschool, then we will have a decision to make. 

I took him at 1:30 on Tuesday and he went back into a room with five other kids and a few teachers. He gave me a kiss, waved goodbye, and was off super excited to "play games". We got absolutely zero feedback after the one-hour screening and were told we'd get letters in June letting us know if our kiddos are accepted into the program. I'm hoping we also get some data from his evaluation because that was my main reason of getting it done. I was just interested in how he would "test". 

I know he's super smart and he did tell me he did some reading for them, so I know they saw how smart he is too. It's hard for me to find a balance because his current preschool does very little as far as curriculum goes. It's more just playtime and honestly that's probably exactly what Brennan needs. But I know how much more he is capable of doing and I want him to be challenged. I have a hard time remembering he is only four years old and has many years of schooling ahead of him and plenty of time to be challenged. 

Just in case you're interested, I copied the descriptions of the two programs that are offered from the Groton Public School website. 

PreK Program:

Groton Public Schools' Districtwide PreK Program is a half-day program designed to supplement a youngster's progress in the area of school readiness. 

 

The program is open to all children living within the boundaries of Groton Public Schools.  Currently there are 2 sites for the program:  Charles Barnum and Catherine Kolnaski Magnet Elementary Schools. Each of these sites offer a morning or afternoon class with a maximum of 18 students each in each session. Each class is staffed with a state certified early childhood education teacher and a full-time paraprofessional with early childhood training.
The curriculum for the PreK program is based on best practices in early childhood education, the CT Framework: Preschool Curricular Goals and Benchmarks and the CT Preschool Assessment Framework. All Districtwide PreK classes have earned accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Students are selected to participate in the program based on screening scores from a teacher administered screening.  Students must be age 4 on or before January 1 of that school year (during that school year) to be considered for screening. Students with suspected learning impairments or known learning disabilities will be referred to the Early Childhood Assessment Team for further screening.

Preschool Program:

The integrated Preschool Special Needs Program provides special education and related services to 3, 4, and 5 year old children who are identified by the Planning and Placement Team (PPT) as having a disability.  This is a half-day program and students attend three to five days per week based on the PPT recommendation.  Transportation is provided for all special needs students.

 

The program also has a Peer Role Model component.  Peer Role Models are children who are 3 and 4 year olds who demonstrate strengths in areas of socialization, communication, cognition, and behavior. Peers participate in a brief screening process to become eligible for the lottery drawing for a slot in the program.  Children must be 3 years of age at the time of screening.  Peer role models must be toilet trained.  Children eligible for entry to kindergarten cannot participate in the Preschool program.

So now we just wait and see what happens. I'll leave you with a picture of Brennan eating frozen yogurt after his screening!

Bryce Gets a Haircut!

I took Bryce to get his hair cut today. He had just a little trim right before his one-year pictures, but it was definitely time for another. I took him to Crewcuts and Curls. I never got around to taking Brennan there when he was little and now he's a big boy and goes with Daddy to the barbershop. Brennan was also way more mellow and willing to just sit still let Kyle cut his hair at Bryce's age. Bryce rarely sits still. This was the perfect place for him. We got to pick out a movie and special car to sit in and he did wonderful. All for just $15!

Here's are two pictures from Easter to reference how long his hair was before. We are thinking that we want to keep his hair longer than Brennan's, but I was ready to have it off his ears.

And here he is today!

My little baby is becoming a big boy!

Yesterday's Happenings

Yesterday was Brennan's first day back to school after Spring Break. We had a really nice and relaxing Spring Break and I was surprised when I was a little sad to see him go to back to school. Once he was there though, I got so much accomplished during those 2.5 hours. Bryce napped the whole time so I cleaned up dog poop from the yard, cleaned Bryce's side of the car because he is world's messiest traveler, cleaned out our sandbox so it was ready for the season, and cleaned the sliding door track in the kitchen!

Once we picked Brennan up from school, we headed to the playground. I wasn't sure how much fun the playground would be this spring and summer trying to keep up with two boys, but it has been great. Brennan is much more independent now and just does he own thing. Bryce is way more independent than Brennan was at his age and is all over the place. Bryce even went down the big tunnel slide by himself yesterday. He's crazy.

After the playground we headed home for lunch. Brennan wanted to do another Easter egg hunt, so we waited until Bryce was down for his second nap and went outside. I think egg hunts are going to be a daily (yesterday was even twice) occurrence for a while. Here are few pictures of Brennan finding the eggs and of both boys playing in the sandbox at different times yesterday. It was Bryce's first time trying out the sandbox and he loved it.

And finally here's a good video of Bryce walking. He's pretty much walking full time now. If he falls then he'll crawl a little bit until he can get to something to help him back up. I love watching him toddle all around.

A Lifelong Love of Reading

Back with a post for the second day in a row! Shocking, I know!

Just wanted to share a quick video of Brennan reading a book we checked out from the library. When we went last Thursday, we specifically looked for some books he could read independently and came home with this Mudge book. He's excited to go back and get some more books he can read on his own. I hope he always loves reading!

Happy Easter

My blogging has been so horrible lately and I'm really hoping I can improve on that. I love posting pictures of the boys on here and I love that it makes me pull out the good camera more often. Today I wanted to share the pictures we've taken today of the boys celebrating Easter. Brennan has especially enjoyed it. He's been looking forward to an Easter egg hunt for months! But it's been even more fun listening to him talk about the true meaning of Easter and realizing how much more he can understand this year.

Unfortunately, Brennan woke up crying at 6am this morning. He said he needed to make a poop and poor little buddy had diarrhea. I tried to get him to rest a little more in our bed, but he wouldn't fall back to sleep. Thankfully after one more trip to the bathroom, he seemed to feel all better. Even though it wasn't even 7am yet, we started the Easter basket scavenger hunt.

I thought Brennan would like having clues lead him to his basket and when your four-year-old can read, it makes it especially fun. The scavenger hunt was a big hit! I'm sharing all the pictures because I just love the looks on his face. He did a great job reading the clues. I think I only helped him with one word. He's such a little smarty!

The search ended on our bed and Brennan immediately began tearing through his basket. Both boys got a lot of clothes for Easter because it has been such a long time since I've bought either of them any article of clothing. Brennan was super excited for his books, bubbles, and his favorite was this little dinky tabletop golf game.

Then we got Bryce up and he joined in on the fun too!

Thankfully we were able to get fed, dressed, and ready in time to take a few pictures of the boys before heading out the door for church. It's no easy task trying to get a decent picture of them together!

We had a great morning at church. Bryce didn't cry when I left him in the nursery today, which was huge! There was no Children's Church, so Brennan was up with us in the service the entire time and he did great. We are so thankful for our church family year-round, but especially at the holidays when being away from home is even harder. After church we asked Brennan what he wanted for lunch and he picked McDonalds. So, we grabbed some classy Easter lunch and headed home. After we ate, I went out and hid the Easter eggs for Brennan to find. 40 eggs in all and he easily found every single one!

Afterwards, we came inside, I laid Bryce down for a nap, and Brennan got to open his eggs. 20 of them had jellybeans inside, 18 were empty, and 2 had dollar bills inside. He was pretty excited for those. I took him outside one more time to blow his new bubbles for a little bit, then it was his turn to lay down for a rest. Right now both boys are still sleeping, I've had a little nap, and Kyle is asleep on the couch. It's a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a much better way to spend it!

Happy Easter!

Saddest Kentucky Fan

I figured I should just go ahead and share this here too. Monday was an exciting day as we were getting ready to cheer on the Wildcats in the National Championship game. Before bath, I let both boys paint banners to hang alongside the one UK would hopefully win that night. Both boys were asleep before tip-off and Kyle had duty, so it was just me in the living room pacing around like a crazy person. Obviously the game didn't go the way we wanted. I was certainly sad, but when Brennan woke up Tuesday morning the first thing he asked me what if Kentucky won. I knew he'd be sad too, but wasn't expecting so many tear.

Dear Bryce,

You are 15 months old today and it's the first time I have blogged in forever! Right now you are still in size 3 diapers, but I'll probably get size 4 overnight diapers for you once these run out. You currently wear mostly 12-18 months clothes, but even some of your hand-me-down 18 month pajamas are getting a little tight on you. You have a size 5 foot, but still rarely wear shoes and refuse to leave socks on your feet for more than three seconds. You've already had a your 15-month checkup. You were 30.5 inches and 21.1 pounds. You are up to the 7th percentile in weight now instead of the zero! Here's a little of what you've been up to lately.

You are walking more and more, but crawling is still your main mode of getting around. You are quite the speedy crawler and are very adventurous, so I'm fine with you taking your time walking. I think you'll be quite a the wild child once you are a full-time walker. Speaking of being a wild child, Friday night you dove head-first into the bathtub full of water with you pjs on! I had given you a tubby with Brennan like I do most nights and had taken you out to get you dressed. When I'm home alone, I know I have to close the bathroom door if I leave Brennan in the tub for a few minutes because you've come close to diving in there before. This particular night, Daddy was home and I happened to leave the bathroom door open. I hollered down the hall, "Bryce is coming" when you took off crawling once you were dressed, but you were fast enough to get in there and into the tub before Daddy could grab you. Brennan was still in there and you obviously got soaked from head to toe. You were fine, but I can tell you're going to keep us on our toes.

I should probably stop here and make the important announcement that you have finally become a good sleeper! It only took you 14 months to figure it out. You did have a bad night a few nights ago that required me to go in several times to rock you, but other than that you've been sleeping 12-13 hours every night. It makes Mommy happy that I can finally get some good sleep and I'm super happy you are finally getting the sleep I know you need. You no longer get a bottle at bedtime. No more bottles at all and it seems like once I took that baby bottle away, you decided to sleep less like a baby. Some days you take two naps, but you can usually manage with just one now. Occasionally you'll fall asleep in the car in the morning and then it's much harder for you to fall asleep for an afternoon nap.

You were sick a few weeks ago with a double-ear infection. It was your second ear infection since turning one. You had never had one prior to that and I'm hoping it's not a new trend. I think you are close to cutting some of your molars, but right now you still have eight teeth. You are a such a good eater. You aren't too fond of veggies, but love fruit, yogurt, mac and cheese, quesadillas, grilled cheese, pizza, lasagna, chicken, ground beef, crackers. And you've already learned to love fruit snacks. You still have such a sweet tooth! You drink a lot of milk each day too.

You are talking more and more each day. You like to repeat a word until we acknowledge what you've said. It'll be hard for me to think of all the new words you've added, but off the top of my head I can think of: up, ba (for your sippy cup), mil (for milk), egg, and some d-word for diaper. My favorite is still when you say "all done". The only new sign you've added is the sign for "milk" and we've been working on thank you for a few days.

You are usually a very sweet and playful boy. You get super cranky when you're hungry and sometimes cry in your car seat now. I don't think you like being strapped down in the car. You are always on the move. You can make a huge mess in a matter of minutes. It's quite impressive. Your happiest time of the day seems to be after supper when your belly is full. You just go room to room playing with different toys and do a great job of entertaining yourself. You love playing with the toys in Brennan's toy box. You have also been enjoying jumping on the mini-trampoline.

You are certainly a Momma's boy. Daddy was hoping for a Daddy's boy with you, but no such luck. You do get super excited when Daddy gets home from work, but you love your Momma. You get super upset if I leave you, but I do feel like that's getting better when I leave you with Daddy. You become hysterical when I leave you in the church nursery, but it doesn't take you long to calm down. You want to be doing what Brennan is doing all the time, which annoys him to no end. You also love Ringo (which annoys me to no end). You give Ringo hugs all the time and crawl all over him. He's so sweet to you.

You are my sweet, blue-eyed, crazy wild boy. I feel like you are going to be so different from your brother and I'm excited to see how your little personality continues to develop. I love your hugs and kisses! Mommy loves you very much!

Love,
Mommy

I know I've shared this picture already, but I haven't uploaded pictures to the computer in such a long time, so this will have to do for now. :)