Bike Rodeo and Birthdays

I love these:

Jon-Mical has a lot going on at his new school these days! He now attends First United Methodist Preschool. Jon-Mical loves it there and so do we! We are so glad that we made the switch. This is an accredited preschool that follows a curriculum. I feel like he is being stimulated and challenged instead of simply being baby-sat. The school "tests" the students twice during the year. We then have a parent-teacher conference following the "testing period." I am calling it a test even though it seems that they simply observe the students in the day to day things and then see how they are doing in relation to other children at the same age. I was very impressed with all of the things that they are looking for and monitoring in Jon-Mical's development. They "test" him in his social, physical, behavioral, and cognitive development. We were very happy with the discussion that took place in our conference. It is very obvious that his teacher cares for each child and really strives to teach them and challenge them in a fun way! Socially, Jon-Mical is right on track. He gets along well with his peers and "plays well with others." Josh and I were worried about the physical part of the test. Jon-Mical seems to be very unsure of himself physically and very awkward. Mrs. Rhonda said that he is right on track there as well with his fine and gross motor skills. Apparently all kids are awkward at this age. :) Jon-Mical does need to work on the way that he holds his pencil, but the teachers are aware of this and we are all working on it. Behaviorally, Jon-Mical is fine. He is very sensitive, so simply looking at him usually stops any unwanted behavior and usually also leads to tears... whew! Cognitively, Jon-Mical seems to be a little ahead. He is very smart and learns quickly and seems to really want to learn! he loves to count. His strengths are math and verbal skills. I say all of that to lead to this... there was one part of the conference that concerned me. Josh says that I am over-reacting (ME???), but I am still slightly worried. His teacher said that Jon-Mical struggles with self-confidence and is very unsure of his abilities. Josh did immediately add in that "I can't" is a very big part of his every-day vocabulary and Mrs. Rhonda agreed. I hate this!!!! I feel like he, being the first grandchild on both sides, has been unceasingly praised from birth! I honestly used to worry that he was going to be a little cocky punk because of all of the praise that he is given on a daily (really hourly) basis. We all compliment him so much. It is just so hard for me to believe that he doesn't see this in himself. I guess, now that we know, we will work on it and try to improve his confidence. I do know that we need to work on fostering his independence. He needs to be able to do some things for himself that I have been doing (getting him dressed, brushing his teeth, etc.) and I am going to work on that...

Whew! Jon-Mical's school also recently had a fall festival and bike rodeo. The kids brought their bikes and rode around in a circle for sponsors. I have attached some pics of this event! I have also attached some pics of Ben's family! His son, Luke, just turned 1 and they are the cutest little family! We are going to Dyersburg this weekend to celebrate Luke's birthday and get in a little family time! Yay!

Jakson is growing up so quickly. He is cutting both of his top front teeth at the same time. I feel so sorry for him, but he doesn't seem to mind! He is still just as happy as ever!

Just chugging along...

Well, I wish I had a ton of interesting things to blog about but life if pretty normal these days! Josh is teaching away and loving every minute of it. (Ha!) I am working on many things at work... Prom, Senior Thesis, College Corner, College Fair, Career Fair, etc. I stay very busy and that is good. The days FLY by! Jon-Mical is still in school and loves it! We actually have his first Parent-Teacher Conference this afternoon! I am excited and nervous about what the teacher is going to say. I am pretty sure that he is doing fine. We have never had any bad reports and she compliments JM a lot, but you never REALLY know how your child acts when you are not around! You know? I guess we'll see today!

Jakson is, of course, changing and growing like crazy! He is now scooting across the floor. Every now and then he gets up on his hands and knees... but then promptly plops right back down and starts scooting. It's pretty cute! It is funny, though, how different we act with our 2nd child. I can remember working with Jon-Mical every day when he was Jakson's age. We wanted him to scoot so badly... then crawl so badly... then walk so badly... then talk so badly... We were always ready and excited about that next phase. It is not like we are not excited about Jakson's phases. We love all of the changes... but I just think, "they'll happen when they happen." Josh and I also recently realized that we have about 1/100 of the amount of pictures and videos of Jakson that we do of Jon-Mical at his age... I am already dreading the day when Jakson asks where all the videos of him are and I have to tell him that I am so sorry that I dropped our video camera in a huge puddle and lost all of them! ;) Maybe I'll say that he was such a cute baby that someone stole our video camera so that they could watch videos of him all the time... or maybe Jon-Mical was a jealous big brother and deleted all of the Jakson videos off of the computer... I'll have to think more on that future lie. Maybe Jakson will be at an age where I can tell him what actually happened, that his parents got really busy with life and raising two children and the picture-taking and videoing got moved to the back burner, and then I'll hand him twenty bucks and he'll be happy... hmmm....

Anyway, Jon-Mical's T-Ball season is over. That was SO MUCH FUN! Once I chilled out, stopped keeping up with Jon-Mical's stats, and started laughing along with the other parents the games were a blast! Jon-Mical ended the season asking if he can play next year, so I guess the season was a success! BUT all the people that told me that 3 is too young to play t-ball were RIGHT! Wow! It was a hot mess!

Halloween is just around the corner. Jon-Mical has been talking about being a pirate for weeks and then last night he told me that he has changed his mind and that he wants to be Superman! To my knowledge, he has never even seen a show, cartoon, movie, or book about Superman, so I have no idea where this one came from. I hope that he goes back to his original plan, but we will see!

Here are some cute pics: I took Jon-Mical and Jakson to the playground the other day...

The Big Game!!!

Jon-Mical's Big Game!!!

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Who you with?!?!

We had a GREAT weekend! Friday night my dad brought some of his Mississippi friends into town to play golf. My brother, Carra, and two of their friends also came into town. They all went the next day to watch Vandy beat the absolute CRAP out of Ole Miss... I don't get to say that too often about Vandy... it feels good!!! Anyway, they all came over on Friday night and I cooked for 10 people. Whew! Actually most of it was grilled food, so Josh did the brunt of the work and MAN did he do a great job! The meal was great and the company was even better! We all had fun! Sunday was a pretty lazy day for The Courtney's. Jakson was up at about 3:30am, and so by the time Josh and I got him back to sleep we decided that we were going to sleep in as well. We layed around in our PJ's until about lunch time and then the four of us went to the Greenway! We had a GREAT time qwalking, jogging, throwing rocks in the water, and looking for animals! What a gorgeous day!!! We came home from the Greenway and I took Jon-Mical to Kroger. By the time we made it back, we decided to let Jon-Mical skip a nap and the four of us spent the rest of the day on the deck, listening to misic and playing with cars (or course). I do not know of a time when we were more in need of a relaxing, great weekend! It was wonderful and I am thankful for every minute of it. Now it is Monday again... and we have A LOT of stuff going on. Jon-Mical has THREE baseball games this week (A little much for a 3 year old???), and my work schedule is packed... Thank God for weekends. Here are 2 pics... 

Is Jesus a Pirate???

I love the fact that Jon-Mical is in school. I love that he comes home every day spouting off random information that he learns in school. I love that he is such a good listener... most of the time... so the facts are usually dead-on and amaze me and Josh. He literally walks in the door every day with new knowledge. He is a little questioning sponge! The other day, however, he got his facts a little mixed up...

The other day Jon-Mical walked into the kitchen and told me that when people die we put them in the ground. (Now, I am all about Jon-Mical learning the facts of life, but I did kind of want to shield him from some of the more harsh things that we all eventually have to learn. I like the fact that right now, he thinks the world is perfect. He does not (did not) know about death or sickness or pain or hurt or disease, etc.. I, honestly, without the risk of sheltering him, want to keep him as innocent as I can for as long as I can!) Anyway, apparently at school he learned a little bit about death. He said that when people and animals die we put them in the ground. Then he said that Jesus swoops down (maybe like Superman???) and takes the dead people out of the ground and they become His treasure! I see where Jon-Mical's teacher is going with this... buried treasure... buried people... Jesus' buried treasure. It is a neat and age-appropriate concept of death and after-life... eexxcceepptt for the fact that many of these kids watch a very popular TV show called, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." So here is how the rest of the conversation went...

Jon-Mical told me that when people die we bury them in the ground and then Jesus swoops down and digs them up... along with the gold doubloons... and takes them to Heaven to be His treasure! HA HA!!!

So, my mom recently had a pet that died, and they buried him in the ground. Jon-Mical is convinced that he is down there with gold doubloons around him and that Jesus is going to take His buried treasure to Heaven.

Kids... :)

Happy Wednesday!!!

Happy Wednesday!!! Well, I don't really have any breaking news. Life is just rolling along here at the Courtney house! Jon-Mical is out of town visiting his SuSu... He is having a great time with SuSu and Wayne, but we are DYING without him! He is going to the fair, going to see The Smurfs, climbing all over tractors, riding four-wheelers, throwing rocks in the creek, staying up late, and eating junk food.... and he has only been there 2 days! He is staying until Friday. The house is SO quiet! I put his toys away and they STAY THERE! I thought it would be nice, but it is awful! I am picturing how it is going to be when my babies are in college and the house stays clean and I only have half the laundry... wow! I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself... sigh...

Josh and I are enjoying watching something other than Curious George and Team Umizoomi, though! Jakson goes to bed around 7:00 and so Josh and I have all these big plans every night. We are going to rent movies or go out to eat or get some yard work done... not happening. Every night we put Jakson to bed and lay down on the couch and are both out by 8:00... At least we are getting caught up on our sleep! :)

Jakson is growing up SO quickly! He is sitting up and he LLOOVVEESS to eat! He is definitely my kid! Here are some cute pictures...

New School for all!

Well, this is going to be a crazy school year if it continues on the way it started! We are all in transition this year... Josh has left youth ministry and is now a Biology teacher at Lavergne High School. The first day of school was pretty good for him, but Josh is such a perfectionist that this entire first year (new students, new curriculum, new lesson plans and rules, etc.) is going to make for many hours in and out of school. I am now at Central Magnet School which is a challenging move for me. I left some very good friends and am sad about that, but I like the challenge of a new job. I am learning (and drowning some days) but overall it seems like it was a good move! Jon-Mical is also at a new school. He is now attending First United Methodist Preschool. He was at Belle Air Baptist Mother's Day Out last year and loved it. I know that most parents say this, but it seems that he was just a little ahead. We don't want to push him scholastically, but we also want him to learn new things. First United Methodist is an accredited preschool that is 5 days a week. I think that he will fit in well here and really love it. He started two days ago and really likes his teachers and his new friends.

Jon-Mical has also started T-Ball this fall. I know that he is young and it seems early, but we wanted him to get some fundamentals down before next spring (when it gets serious!). :-) He LOVES it! He is the only 3 year old on the team and is (by far) the worst, but he doesn't know and really has fun at every practice. His mom and dad, however, are cringing and BITING THEIR TONGUES. He looks SO CUTE in his little baseball pants and cleats... he will look so cute at every game just sitting there on the bench in his little baseball outfit... Ha! Here are some recent pics. The are on my phone and not that great, but you can see his classroom and first day of school outfit! :)

Jon-Mical also really likes to cook! I am sure it is because he has watched his mother slave away in the kitchen every single night making gourmet dinners for her loving family... oooor because there is a kitchen at school that he plays with. Well, whatever the reason, he loves to cook and wants to help me! He made a pizza ALL BY HIMSELF the other night...