Wordless Wednesday: Find the Gabriel

Wordless Wednesday: Gabe's New Obsession

Wordless Wednesday (has words): 2nd Grade

Today is Gabe's first day of second grade; getting on the bus this morning he was so confident and self assured. He was ready for whatever this day had to bring and prepared to do battle if need be. He's such a great little guy and it's been such a pleasure watching him grow up.

So I Guess This is Growing Up?

Whenever we go to Michigan for a trip, the kiddos both choose a few items to put in their backpacks for the ride up and for comfort items, if they need them. Without fail, Gabriel ALWAYS puts Sam, his faithful scruffy puppy in his backpack (and he usually ends up on Gabe's lap about ten minutes into the trip and stays there till we get where we're going)

Today I told them to go get their bags and pack em up so we could get ready to go. Both of them packed their bags and Gabe came out and started telling me what he'd brought: books (big surprise, eh?) a batmobile, a decepticon toy, and a yo yo. What was absent? Sam! I asked, "what about Sam? Is he staying here? Are you sure you'll be ok?" He looked at me and said "I'll be fine, I'm 7, I don't need Sam to go everywhere with me anymore Mom" I told him that was fine and went to take a shower, wondering why how he grew up so quickly.

I snuck a peek into the kiddos bedroom as I walked past and sitting front and center of the bed was Sam. I swear he looked like he was going to cry (or maybe that was ME wanting to cry??) Sam still hasn't been packed and I'm not sure he will be packed...and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Thankful Thursday: Gabriel

I'm always thankful for Gabe, but lately I've been especially thankful for him. He finished school yesterday and we got to spend the afternoon together, just the two of us (Bits is at camp in the afternoons) Today we spent the afternoon together as well; we sang along to the radio, shared some reese's peanut butter cups, and went to the chiropractor together. It's been great having him all to myself for the last two afternoons-I kind of miss the little guy when he's in school.

Wordless Wednesday: Delish!

Wordless Wednesday: Cat bath

Toothy Tuesday

The blog has been a bit quite this week for good reason; Saturday while enjoying some chex mix (gotta support General Mills!!) I broke a tooth in half. Let me just state for the record that it was NOT a fun thing to do and if you can avoid breaking a tooth, I would totally advise you to do so. *shudder*

Gabe is not a real touchy feely kind of kiddo, but today I was laying in bed with a throbbing jaw (again, do NOT break a tooth, it hurts) and he laid down next to me and started to gently rub my face. He said "Momma, if I rub your cheek you will feel so much better, won't you?" He laid next to me for a good five minutes and gave me a good snuggle before he hopped off my bed to torment his sister. I love those little moments with him, he's growing up SO quickly and soon enough won't want to snuggle with momma.

I'm getting my tooth fixed on Thursday (not much they could do on a Saturday afternoon for a borked tooth!) So I probably won't be blogging for a few more days. Hope all is well :)

Is that read or read?

Gabe is a reader-a big time reader. He's currently hooked on Calvin and Hobbes books and even if he doesn't quite get all the jokes, he enjoys them nonetheless.

He's been at his new school for two weeks; the first morning he was there we had a meeting with his teacher and told her that he is a voracious reader. She assured me she'd keep an eye on it and indeed she has. I just opened his weekend folder (because I'm lazy ha ha) and found a note and the 2nd grade sight words list. She wants to see if he knows them (HA, does he know them?) and if he does, she'll move him up another level to keep him challenged. Out of curiosity, we asked him to read the list of words. He zipped through them and when he got to the word "read" he read it both ways without prompting. He said "these are easy" I guess we've got our answer then, 2nd grade sight words are TOO easy for him...now to get the NEXT set of words (so he can zip through them and proclaim them "too easy")

Having another reader in the house is fantastic; I can spend a whole day reading, getting up only for the essentials, you know diet coke, cheese and crackers, petting the cat...and so can Gabe. It's a wonderful feeling, I just hope Bitsy is the same way!

Report Card Time

It's report card time at ye olde Witkowski home and I'm so pleased that Gabriel is doing SO well. His areas of "expertise" seem to be math and reading, which I couldn't be happier about. His daddy is awesome at math (and I'm not so good...lol) and not to brag or anything but reading is my strong suit. He's reading above grade level and devours books the way locusts devour a field in a biblical plague.

We have parent-teacher conferences coming up and are excited to hear how well Gabe is doing and what we can do to help him excel and become the best possible Gabe he can be. I don't really care about grades, truthfully, because grades don't really show how a child is doing in school. I want to see (and hear) that he is comprehending things, that he is showing that he knows them both written and verbally, I want to know that he is doing the best he can do-that he's working up to his potential.

I shall report back after his conference on Thursday and we'll see how well he's doing...

In other news, we have a new house :) We'll be moving at the end of the month back into town (ha ha-the fact that Maple Park is considered town cracks me up) about two blocks from where we originally lived when we moved out here. It's an old house (as in, built in the 1880's!!) but the kitchen is newly remodeled and has a brand new washer and dryer IN THE KITCHEN (my dream kitchen, seriously. Yes, I realize how lame that is, but really, who wouldn't want to have the machines RIGHT THERE when you spend as much time in the kitchen as I do?) I happen to know the landlord (yay small towns) and it looks like it's going to work out great. Two car garage that had Geo drooling, a huge yard with a big clear spot for a giant garden that had the kids and I drooling, and a three seasons room that I am SURE is going to get a lot of use between us and the kitty cats.

*sigh*

We're all feeling so much more relaxed and calm right now, thank goodness. Now to pack everything up...ugh...not looking forward to that, but at least this will be the last time we do it until we buy a house.

Hope you're all doing well :) I've had increasing hits on my blog in the last few weeks-so welcome if you are new to the blog and ♥♥♥ to all of our oldy moldy readers he he.

Best Buddies

Last night Gabriel had a sleep over with his best buddy, D. They had a fabulous time rolling around on the ground, playing good guys-bad guys, eating popcorn and staying up WAY too late. Whenever D spends the night, the boys "camp out" on Gabe's floor and tell each other jokes and stories. It's amazing, that even at the age of six, the boys try to one up each other and try to make it sound like one is braver than the other. Last nights' story was about losing teeth-a popular subject around here-D retold the gory (eww, they WERE gory) details of losing three of his teeth and of course Gabe had to launch into the even GORIER details of losing his last two teeth.

I'm not sure if I blogged about it or not, but Gabe was fed up with having to wait for his teeth to come out so he went outside and bit down on our garden fence to pop the teeth out. (For the record; the garden fence is a thin metal fence completely covered in vinyl) He went on and on to D about all the "blood pouring out of my mouf" and then said "But the next tooth didn't want to come out either so I had to bite again" And bite he did...and in the process he damaged his gum. At this point, Gabe says "Dr. Lee says my gum was hurt and I shouldn't do it again. Ha ha, I got that tooth out though!"

The boys then took turns examining each others' mouths for what seemed like eons before finally deciding that it was time to go to sleep. Good thing they crashed when they did, since it was nearly midnight when those two boneheads settled down. Ha ha :)

I'm so glad to see Gabriel SO grown up and becoming part of friendships that I am sure will last for many years-if not life-we've always said that if Gabe had a twin it would be D and it seems to be truer and truer, as D recently grew about three inches and is now the exact same height as Gabriel.

It's hard to believe that Gabe is SO grown up already, seems like just yesterday we found out he was coming. Life moves pretty darn quickly...

Hey Spina Bifida...

Bite me!

Six years ago, we were gearing up to have Gabriel; a baby, we were told, who more than likely wouldn't walk, wouldn't toilet on his own, and would be very mentally retarded. The doctors couldn't have been more wrong...and as proof, how about a few pics of my "never gonna function normally" kid shoveling snow...

Feed Me Seymour

Gabe is a string bean. No really, he's very skinny SLIM and starting to get quite tall. He's about 45 pounds soaking wet and appears to live on cottage cheese and air. People who know Gabe often wonder out loud if he actually eats and how he's growing so well on his all air diet.

In the last week or so, Gabe has been eating, I mean REALLY eating. We had to go out and there was a Portillo's near where we were going to be, so we decided to treat ourselves to a burger and fries. Portillo's burgers are HUGE, I mean they are enormous. I don't think I've ever been able to finish one of their burgers. They're delicious but enormous. Gabriel, my darling itty bitty boy, ate a WHOLE burger and half a large order of fries, and drank half of a large sprite for dinner.

Friday nights are typically a night for junk food, I don't usually cook because we bowl and last night was no exception. We snuck over to Burger King and had a quick bite. Gabe ate a cheeseburger, a small order of fries (which is actually very big, at least I think so) and drank a chocolate milk. In between fries, Gabe asked "If I finish this food can I have a shake, I'm starving"
Geo didn't think he'd finish his dinner, so he said sure and sure enough Gabe finished his entire meal AND then a milk shake. We came home and he asked for a snack! What in the world?! Can you say growth spurt?!

His birthday is coming and we've already decided any and all birthday loot is going toward new clothes. Last week we bought him new undies and socks because none of what he had in his closet fit him anymore. I have a feeling we are going to be dealing with a big boy with a big appetite in the near future. Geo tells me he's going to make up for the last five years of not eating by eating us out of house and home for the next five years...I honestly fear his teenage years.

No one told me that boys start eating like ravenous wolves around the age of six and don't stop (seriously, Geo is 32 and can still eat like a teenage boy, it's scary) If you need me, I'll be scanning the paper for coupons!

What Does This Say?

Gabriel is an emergent reader; he recognizes all of his sight words (all 41 of them) and he's reading quite a few small books on his own. It's an amazing process to see. I've gotten to watch him going from just spelling the letters out, to sounding the letters out one by one, to sounding out syllables, to saying the beginning sound quietly to himself, and finally by just looking at the word and *knowing* it. It's so much fun to see him reading and really enjoying himself. He's an excellent reader already; he understands how to use context clues, he's got great comprehension skills, and he really ENJOYS reading.

A few years ago, my mom gave him Robinson Crusoe for his birthday, it's been patiently sitting on the shelf waiting for him to be big enough to enjoy the story. A few days ago at breakfast (which is where Gabe and I do the first of our three daily reading together times) we decided to start it. We're three chapters in, Robinson has just been captured by pirates, and he is in LOVE with this book. Today, he and Bits are sick. Bits has a stomach bug and a fever, Gabe has the cough that came with the prize...both are miserable, but making the best of it. I just came downstairs and Gabe ran up to me with the book, so excited. He said "mom, I just read all the chapter numbers and look at these pictures (he flips to pages) I know these words" and he proceeded to read captions on pictures.

*GRINS* I was so thrilled, I mean, honest-to-God thrilled. I am a huge reader (currently on my 26th book of the new year) and to see him gobbling up books makes me so happy...but more importantly, it makes HIM happy, and really, what else can you want for your kids but for them to be happy? *sigh* if you need me, I'll be on the couch with Gabe, finding out if Robinson escapes from the pirates or not...

The Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy made an appearance at our house last night, leaving a charming little note and two dollars for Gabriel's SECOND lost tooth. Gabe doesn't quite grasp the concept of the tooth fairy yet and Grandpa's picture of the tooth fairy confused him further.


Apparently, Gabe did NOT like the idea of this guy coming in and taking his tooth. I assured him that picture was a joke and that the tooth fairy looked like Tinkerbell. As soon as the word Tinkerbell was out of my mouth little miss me too was at my side asking when HER teeth would come out and if she could SEE the Tinkerbell tooth fairy. *shakes head* silly girl.

Gabe's tooth had been loose for a few days, he was patient with it, not wiggling like crazy, just occasionally moving it with his tongue. Yesterday the kids wanted a "poison" apple to snack on and not thinking, I handed them both a whole apple. About five minutes later Gabe came down the stairs and said "oh here, have this tooth" and handed me an itty bitty tooth with blood dribbling down his chin. He rinsed his mouth and went on with the business of eating his apple. He is so nonchalant about these sorts of things which is how I imagine his father was when it came to losing teeth.

I tried to get a picture of the gap but he refused to allow me, apparently getting a picture of the FIRST missing tooth was quite enough for him. It's so odd to see him with an adult tooth; so odd to think that here he is, almost six and he has a tooth in his mouth that he'll have for the rest of his life. It makes me feel so old that he's big enough to have ADULT teeth already, but that's life, right??

Now onto our next adventure...

It's Probably His Cousin...

On the way home from taking Geo to work this morning, we encountered a deer. She was standing on the side of the road until we got closer and she darted in front of me. It's a great way to start the day, for sure, especially if you're Gabe. He was SO excited that there was a deer by our car, because it *had* to be a reindeer. He excitedly asked, "which reindeer is THAT one Mom??" I told him it wasn't a reindeer, just a white tailed deer-he thought about it for a minute then asked "are you SURE it wasn't a reindeer??" I told him no, it was a white tailed deer and that reindeer don't live in Illinois. He sighed and said "maybe that was cousin or something" I laughed and agreed, that yes, maybe it WAS his cousin. Goofy boy; he is SO into Christmas this year, and it's SO much fun :)

Ever the Optomist...

Gabe is such a sweet natured child; so loving and caring towards others (except for Bitsy on occasion he he)he's always so concerned with other people, he's very sensitive-he's just a great kid. I really truly adore him.

Tonight at dinner we were talking about his friend B, who has CP and uses a wheel chair to get around. Gabriel asked me why his buddy couldn't walk. I explained tp he that B's brain sends messages to his legs, but his legs just don't get the message correctly. He thought about it for a moment and said "but he'll walk when he gets bigger, like I did right?" I gently explained, that no, he probably wouldn't walk when he gets bigger, that he'll probably always have to use his wheelchair to get around. He thought about it for another minute or so and said "But I can walk and my legs don't always work right, he will be able to walk when he is bigger, I know it" I told him we could hope that happened and we would pray about it, but it wasn't our decision.

And then, as he walked to the trash can and then to the sink, I thought about how truly miraculous the conversation we had was, because the kid in the wheel chair, with the legs that "don't get the message" could have very well been Gabriel, in fact, it SHOULD have been Gabriel. People always tell us how lucky we are and while Geo and I DO know how lucky we are, it gets tiring to hear it sometimes. Maybe, though, we don't realize JUST how lucky we truly are when it comes to Gabe and his health and maybe Gabe and my conversation tonight was a gentle nudge reminding me to NOT take his walking/running/toileting for granted because it COULD have been and SHOULD have been him in the wheelchair. It could have been SarahAnne asking me why Gabe uses a chair to get around, it could have been my nieces or nephews asking why he's in a chair or wears a diaper still...but it's not and for that I am eternally grateful and thinking about just how lucky we all are that Gabe can do what he does. I hope that the next time I start to feel down about Gabe's spina bifida, I'll be able to look at this and think "hey you know what, you ARE lucky; so many people have it so much worse and God made it so YOU are not one of them" and maybe it'll give the dose of reality I so badly need at the time.

On that note, it's time for bed...it's been a very posty day for me over here so I'll consider this my Early Thankful Thursday post ;)

Where's Idaho, Mom?

Gabe has become a geography nut as of late and as of two nights ago, could identify at least 45 of the 50 states by sight, no prompting. He's to the point where he can see states by themselves and know what they are. This has lead to a *bit* of cockiness on Gabe's part, as he demonstrated in the car the other night. We had the following conversation:
Gabriel to Mom: Hey Mom where's Idaho?
Mom to herself, frantically trying to remember where Idaho is
Mom to Gabriel: Uh, it's on the West Coast
Gabriel to Mom: No it's not Mom
Mom to Gabriel: Well it's close enough
Gabriel to Mom: Actually, Mom Idaho is next to Montana; Montana is a big state and Idaho has an odd shape.
Then he laughed to himself, as if to say "My God mom, you are SO clueless sometimes"

Guess who's going to be brushing up on her geography!? Ha ha

Good Ole Idaho

Ah yes

It's the time of year that students and teachers alike dread; parent teacher conferences. Having sat on the teacher side of the table for years, this year was a whole new experience for me. Here's the good: Gabe is academically right on par for most things and above where he needs to be on the rest. Here's the bad: He's having some difficulties socializing and here's the ugly: Gabe's teacher is pretty sure he has ADHD (attention deficit hyper activity disorder) Here's the even uglier part, all the research I've done today says that more than likely he DOES have ADHD because children with spina bifida are more likely to have it than children without and the ugly uglier part? Children with spina bifida AND shunted hydrocephalus are even MORE likely than kids with just spina bifida to have ADHD. Going over the symptoms check list with Geo was a sobering experience; on Friday Gabe will start the formal evaluation process to see if indeed we are dealing with ADHD. I suppose a part of me has always wondered if that was the case; he has a hard time transitioning, he goes at 1000 miles an hour, and he has trouble focusing on tasks at hand without someone sitting right with him working on it.

It fits, it really does and Geo and I wondered to ourselves out loud, how in the hell we had missed the red flag signs and symptoms.

Here's the thing, I can deal with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus. I can deal with orthodics and physical therapy, I can deal with tripping and falling, shunts in the head, and latex allergies. I can even deal with open spine surgery, brain surgery, and medical bills totaling over a million dollars in less than five years. I can do that. I can and HAVE dealt with ALL of those things...but adding one new thing to the mix, something as complicated as ADHD? That's a whole new animal in and of itself. Spina bifida or ADHD I could do, no problem. It's the putting them together that I don't know if I can handle.

Friday we go in to start the formal evaluation on Gabriel; I'll know more from there and know what our plan of attack will be. If you are the praying kind, please say an extra prayer for our family as we go forward with the next part of our journey with Gabriel. Thank you

Gobble Gobble

Gabriel came home with a very important assignment; disguise Tom Turkey so no one can eat him on Thanksgiving. Geo and Gabe being the Blackhawks nuts they are decided to turn him into Patrick Kane, stud right wing for the Hawks. Much fun was had by both of the boys as they transformed Tom Turkey into Tom Turkane...see if you can pick the biggest "turkey" out of the bunch (hint, she's wearing Tinkerbell pjs he he)